Chavismo was also open to collaborate, but the opposition and other actors accuse him of kidnapping the institutions.
The signing of a memorandum of understanding between Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and Nicolás Maduro is the first step that the high court took after announcing that it was going to investigate the alleged crimes against humanity in the country.
From the opposition they indicated that this was the beginning of the end of the Maduro regime, who maintains control of the country, although from Chavismo they also said that the decision is the right one.
Maduro has mentioned that he respects, but does not share, the decision taken by the ICC Prosecutor’s Office.
The attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, assured in an interview with EFE that the memorandum of understanding signed with the high court to follow the process is an “institutional victory”, as it will be done with “cooperation” between the parties.
“He who does not owe it does not fear it”, Saab also pointed out in the chain Telesur, adding that so far the ICC has not indicted any member of the Venezuelan State.
Meanwhile, the first vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, said his country will request a review by the ICC to open an investigation.
“We will take care of our defense before the Criminal Court and before the Prosecutor’s Office. Starting because we have every right to have the decision reviewed because we believe that the preliminary phase has not been completed, the preliminary phase has not been closed. We have the example of Colombia, 17 years in the preliminary phase, ”said Cabello, number two of Chavismo.
The ICC “has concluded the preliminary examination of the situation in Venezuela”, and “it has been determined that an investigation should be opened to establish the truth in accordance with the Rome Statute”, according to Khan himself.
The case dates back to 2018, when the ICC Prosecutor’s Office began an investigation for the alleged commission of crimes against humanity, since at least April 2017, during the demonstrations and mistreatment of opponents in some prisons.
The international court released an annual report in December 2020 listing crimes committed by the security forces, including torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, politically motivated persecution and imprisonment in violation of the rules. fundamentals of international law.
Opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim president of Venezuela by several Western countries —but without internal control—, celebrated the decision, considering that it “vindicates the right to justice” for the victims of possible crimes against humanity.
Venezuelan opposition candidate and two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles celebrated the ICC’s action and said that he hopes the decision will clear “the way for the victims to obtain” justice.
Capriles affirmed that “what exists are institutions hijacked by a political party and a group clinging to power,” referring to the PSUV and Chavismo.
All of them, in his opinion, are “far from democracy” and “closed the door to the victims and their families, and that is why today they see hope in the ICC.”
“It is not revenge, it is JUSTICE that they claim. We all hope that the day will come when our own institutions can be trusted and for that we must also continue working ”, he concluded on Twitter.
The president of the NGO Foro Penal, Alfredo Romero, explained that the opening of the investigation “implies the possibility of collecting evidence, meeting or interviewing people who, in some way, are witnesses or victims of these situations (of the ) that the prosecutor has learned through different channels ”.
“From Doctors United (MUV) we extend our gratitude to the prosecutor Karim Khan for having visited Venezuela and verifying the human rights situation, as well as announcing the move to the next phase of investigation of the crimes committed, which include the chains of command” , said, meanwhile, this NGO of doctors, which also took the opportunity to thank “the relatives of the victims of homicides, torture, persecution, imprisonment, cruel and degrading treatment” for making their complaints.
The director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch (HRW), José Miguel Vivanco, assured that this “gives hope of justice” to the “victims of brutal repression.”
“This decision – the first in the history of Latin America – gives hope of justice to the hundreds of victims of the brutal repression of the Maduro regime,” Vivanco wrote on his Twitter account.
In December of last year, HRW assured that it was “imperative” that “there be justice” in Venezuela, after the report published by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that warns about alleged crimes against humanity committed by various bodies of security forces.
This report “contributes to the search for justice for the victims of atrocities committed during the government of Nicolás Maduro,” includes a statement from HRW.
In it, they emphasize that the report is focused on “allegations related to the treatment of people in detention, regarding which sufficient detailed and reliable information was available.” (I)
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