"Venezuelan Chief Attorney Luisa Ortega Diaz today left for Brazil, having carried out the necessary emigration procedure with the Colombian authorities," they said in a statement.

Ortega, 59, had arrived in Colombia on Friday after fleeing with her lawmaker husband from Venezuela where they faced court action after defying Maduro over a deadly political crisis.

A former loyalist of the socialist leadership, Ortega had broken ranks with Maduro to become his most high-ranking domestic critic as international pressure on the president mounted.