Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas last week.Europa Press/Contact/Office of the Iranian Presidency (Europa Press/Contact/Iranian Pr)
Human rights defenders have been waiting for a response from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for weeks. After several ups and downs, when the Venezuelan government and prosecutor Karim Khan visited the country to set up a cooperation office in Caracas, the ICC has ordered the investigation to move forward. The decision is a setback for Nicolás Maduro, who has been using various means to derail the trial in The Hague over allegations of gross human rights violations that could amount to crimes against humanity.
The Preliminary Questions Chamber of the ICC issued a statement with the conclusions of the analysis of the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office’s repeated requests to stay the trial on the grounds that the Venezuelan judiciary would assume responsibility. “Venezuela does not investigate (nor does it express any intention to conduct an investigation) the allegations of fact underlying the contextual elements of crimes against humanity.” inexplicable and that the investigation focused only on junior officials and not on the entire chain of command, which is the subject of justice at this international body.
“We have a clear intention to bring justice to our country without a transnational company doing it for us, and we are demonstrating it,” Venezuelan prosecutor Tarek William Saab said less than a month ago during Khan’s third visit to the country the establishment of a technical cooperation office was agreed. In response to the new move, Venezuela’s foreign ministry expressed its opposition. According to the government’s reasoning, since the beginning of the trial in 2018, the court has been promoting and contributing to a “regime change” strategy in Venezuela for political purposes, allegedly promoted by the United States, which is seen as the main enemy of part of Chavismo and with whom he contacted again last year.
The judges of the chamber, Péter Kovács, Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera, examined the observations made by the Venezuelan authorities, as well as 1,875 forms collected by the Department of Reparation and Victim Involvement, collecting the statements of more than 8,000 victims of torture, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions since 2014 as part of anti-government demonstrations and a policy of persecution for political reasons.
At the end of 2021, the ICC announced the completion of the pre-examination, a preliminary phase to determine the opening of an investigation. The Maduro government tried various legal maneuvers to stop the process, but only managed to put it on hold for a few months. Chavismo’s strategies appear to have reached their limit, although they have said they will appeal the decision again, with little chance of it being considered this time, according to some analysts.
Maduro faces that test again after re-establishing diplomatic relations with much of the world and ahead of the 2024 presidential election for which the Chavista leader is trying to improve his image. Although this path at the ICC was initiated by former presidents of various Chavismo-critical countries in the region, such as Colombian Iván Duque, Argentine Mauricio Macri, Chilean Sebastián Piñera or Paraguayan Mario Abdo Benítez, NGOs were instrumental in documenting the file .
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The Latin American political spectrum has turned again and allegations of human rights abuses by the government have receded into the background, at least in diplomatic relations, while human rights defenders in Venezuela have pushed ahead with seeking justice in international bodies. That is why the parliament, which is close to Maduro, opposed these organizations and, a few months ago, passed a law in the first discussion that restricts their activities and access to international funding.
NGOs such as Defiende Venezuela and Acceso a la Justicia have expressed that the Chamber’s decision represents a victory for the victims. In 2000, Venezuela ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. This is the first time an investigation has been launched against an incumbent government, and also the first time an investigation has been launched in a Latin American country. In this case. In this case, it was also unprecedented for States parties – Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Paraguay and Canada – to invoke the Rome Statute against another member, as happened in the 2018 motion that opened this dossier. This Tuesday’s decision marks another step on the long road to investigating the existence of crimes against humanity and possibly punishing senior government officials for being responsible.
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