Venezuelan president to speak at United Nations rights body amid uproar

Two of Maduro's relatives have been indicted in the United States for cocaine smuggling, according to NY court papers on Thursday, following an worldwide sting that Caracas cast as an "imperialist" attack.

"Neither attacks nor imperialist ambushes can harm the people of the liberators", Maduro, soon after news that the two Venezuelans had been whisked out of Haiti to NY.

Venezuela's Communications Ministry and Foreign Ministry declined to comment about the reported arrests, saying they had no information about the incident.

United Nations rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein delivered a short video message before the speech from Maduro, whose appearance at the council has been fiercely criticised by civil society groups and activists over what they describe as the Venezuelan president's appalling human rights record.

Flores and Maduro formally Wednesday in 2013 shortly after Maduro was elected president following Chavez's death. A USA document said the other man identified himself as Flores nephew, the newspaper reports.

The two men, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, were first arrested...

Flores, 62, whom the president refers to as the "First Combatant," is highly influential in her husband's government.

According to U.S. prosecutors the defendants participated in several meetings during October to coordinate a shipment of drugs with an operation that started in Honduras and whose final destination was the US.

"We reiterate our desire for a successful outcome in the upcoming elections in Venezuela and the need for your support in facilitating the participation of global election observers to guarantee the objectivity and credibility of the process", their letter said.

The U.S. Treasury has locked nine suspected Venezuelan officials out of the States' financial infrastructure.

The two men told agents they were acting in conjuction with Venezuela's speaker of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, and former Minister of the Interior, Tarck el Aissami.

The stakes for the vote are high: With the South American oil giant's economy in tatters, the "Chavistas" are at risk of losing the legislature for the first time since Chavez came to power.

USA spokesman Paul Patin told reporters Maduro's address was "a transparent attempt to use the United Nations Human Rights Council to shift attention away from his government's own actions".

The case also comes just three weeks before key legislative elections that opinion polls have been suggesting could hand the ruling party its worst defeat in 16 years as Venezuela's struggles with triple-digit inflation and widespread shortages of basic goods.

They were arrested earlier this week in Haiti and turned over to US authorities.