Caracas.– Venezuelan Parliament President Jorge Rodríguez said on Tuesday that Venezuela will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to the “vassalage” of its representatives, stating that the judges of this body “are not there to administer justice or to defend rights.”
“So that there is a historical record that we are leaving that Court because they are useless, but we are also leaving because we are denouncing the vassalage of the representatives of that International Criminal Court,” Rodríguez stated during an ordinary session broadcast by the Parliament’s channel.
The head of the National Assembly (AN, with a Chavista majority) intervened during a debate in defense of a bill to repeal the Rome Statute – so that Venezuela withdraws from this instance, something that still needs to be approved in a second discussion – and asked for support for its approval next Thursday in “solidarity” with Palestine and because the ICC says “nothing” about the “genocide” of Israel.
However, the international court issued arrest warrants in 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as the main responsible for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
On the other hand, Rodríguez stated that the U.S. Department of State is the “owner” of the ICC and questioned the importance of this instance: “What the hell is that International Criminal Court for?”, he emphasized.
Silence on Threats to Venezuela
He also asserted that the ICC “is useless,” indicating that it has also said “absolutely nothing” about the “threats and psychological warfare” against Venezuela by the United States, which maintains an air and naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea under the argument of combating drug trafficking, but which the Nicolás Maduro administration interprets as an attempt to bring about a regime change.
On December 1st, the ICC Prosecutor announced that it would close its office in Caracas due to the lack of “real progress” with Venezuela in terms of “complementarity,” a principle that requires the country to seriously investigate the crimes it is accused of before this court intervenes.
The Deputy Prosecutor, Mame Mandiaye Niang, then explained in his opening speech at the 24th Assembly of States Parties of the ICC that, despite the “sustained commitment” maintained with the Venezuelan authorities, the ICC concluded that “real progress remains a challenge”, which is why it decided to close the office installed in the South American country in 2024 to work with the Venezuelan authorities.
However, Niang stressed that the investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela “remains active” and is led by a team of prosecutors who will continue working from The Hague.
The ICC opened the investigation into Venezuela in 2018 following a referral from several countries.
Nicolás Maduro’s government repeatedly tried to halt the case, claiming that its judicial system is conducting internal investigations, but the Court rejected that position in 2023 and authorized the resumption of investigations into alleged crimes against humanity committed since 2017.
