ALLEGATION:
The ICC in 2020 said there was a basis to believe that the Venezuelan armed forces and officials had been committing crimes against humanity since 2017
Venezuela has formally notified the UN of its “irrevocable” decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had been conducting a multi-year investigation into members of its armed forces and other officials, a Venezuelan official said on Friday. The government justified the move by alleging a “geographical bias” within the court, claiming it disproportionately targets nations in the Global South, specifically across Africa and Latin America, Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Felix Plasencia wrote on X.Echoing his words, Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said the institution had been used to target the country.
Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez delivers a speech outside the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas on Jan. 29.
“The International Criminal Court has been so heavily politicized to attack the Venezuelan people and the Venezuelan state that we do not believe in that type of organization or institution,” Rodriguez said. The move had been expected since December last year, when Venezuela’s national assembly voted — a month before the US removed former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from power — to repeal a law ratifying the Rome Statute, paving the way for the withdrawal.
