The International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized its prosecutor on Tuesday to resume the investigation of alleged crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela by the Nicolás Maduro regime, considering national procedures insufficient.
Caracas maintains that the complaints of human rights violations committed during the repression of the anti-government demonstrations in 2017, which caused hundreds of deaths, must be resolved within the framework of its own judicial system.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber indicated that although it sees that the Maduro government is taking “some investigative measures”, it considers that “its internal criminal proceedings do not sufficiently reflect the scope of the investigation” as a whole, especially with regard to to crimes of persecution and of a sexual nature.
Venezuela ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, in 2000, and the court’s prosecutor’s office received a referral in September 2018 from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, in which they denounce the alleged commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela since February 12, 2014.
In November 2021, the prosecutor’s office announced that the preliminary examination initiated based on that referral had concluded and that the decision had been made to proceed with a formal investigation, but accompanied by a memorandum of understanding with Caracas to promote means and mechanisms. that promote a national process in Venezuela.
In April of last year, Caracas asked to defer the ICC prosecutor’s investigations in favor of the Venezuelan national authorities. However, in November, prosecutor Karim Khan asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to authorize him to resume the investigation because the Maduro regime was not doing enough in the case.