[1] Headed by an Ombudsman (Defensor (male) or Defensora (female) del Pueblo) appointed for a seven-year term by a panel of members of the National Assembly, the agency is based in Caracas with offices throughout the country.
It is thus a member of the International Coordinating Committee of NHRIs and of its regional grouping, the Network of National Institutions in the Americas.
On 10 December 2015, days after a general election in which conservative opposition parties had secured a majority in the National Assembly, the outgoing Assembly, dominated by the pro-government United Socialist Party of Venezuela, selected Judge Susana Barreiros to succeed Saab.
The Assembly at the same time modified the law in an effort to prevent the incoming legislature, which opened in January 2016, from overturning the nomination.
Barreiros had presided over the trial of opposition leader Leopoldo López Mendoza over his involvement in anti-government protests, and had in September 2015 convicted him of inciting riots and sentenced him to 14 years' imprisonment.