What is the motivation behind Venezuela’s decision to withdraw from the ICC? | News of crimes against humanity

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia announced on Friday that his country has formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court based in The Hague. Placencia said on Channel X that the instructions came from interim President Delcy Rodriguez, describing the decision as “firm and irrevocable.”

He said the ICC showed “clear geographic bias” by disproportionately targeting countries in Africa and Latin America.

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The United States quickly welcomed the decision, praising Rodriguez for joining “US-led efforts to dismantle the corrupt and worthless International Criminal Court.” The US State Department said in a statement that the court spent years “investigating” former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “without result,” and called on all ICC member states to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

While Venezuela’s decision to leave the ICC is unlikely to halt the long-running investigation into alleged crimes against humanity, analysts say it is the latest sign of rapid change in the country’s foreign policy under Rodriguez, bringing Caracas closer to Washington while dealing another blow to a court already fighting for its future.

The ICC has long faced criticism for disproportionately targeting countries of the Global South. However, Mark Kirsten, professor of human rights and international criminal law at the University of the Fraser Valley, said this argument is less convincing today.

“There was definitely a time when that was more convincing,” he told Al Jazeera on Monday, referring to a time when most of the leaders pursued by the ICC were African. “But now you have [Russia’s] Vladimir Putin. You have [Israel’s] Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. You have investigations in contexts that are not the contexts of the Global South.

What withdrawal changes – and what it doesn’t

The ICC told Al Jazeera that it has not yet received formal notification through the UN Treaty Office. She said that under the Rome Statute, any withdrawal would take effect one year after notification and would not affect investigations already underway or matters already before the court.

This means the ICC can continue investigating alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela despite the country’s decision to leave, according to Kirsten and other experts who spoke to Al Jazeera.

The withdrawal adds to a growing sense of desperation among Venezuelans who had been looking to the court for accountability, and who were already frustrated by how slowly the case was progressing, said Laura Dibb, director of the Venezuela program at the Washington Office on Latin American Affairs.

“Thousands of victims have sent their testimonies. They have risked their lives to provide this information to the court,” she added, warning that repeated attacks on the court, including US sanctions on its judges and prosecutors, are making it difficult for the ICC to move cases forward by creating fears of retaliation.

The ICC opened its investigation into Venezuela in 2021 after prosecutors found reasonable grounds to believe that security forces and pro-government groups committed crimes against humanity during a crackdown on anti-government protests that began in 2017. Relations with Caracas were already tense in January last year, when the court closed its office in the country, saying authorities had not taken meaningful steps to investigate the alleged crimes. Then in December, the Venezuelan National Assembly voted to begin withdrawing from the Rome Statute.

Although the move does not affect the court’s investigation, “the practical ability of the court to act always depends on the state’s cooperation,” said Francisco Rodriguez, a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and founder of Oil for Venezuela, adding that the withdrawal signals a commitment to non-cooperation.

He added: “This is important because many of the officials included in the investigation are still in their positions, and many of them have been promoted.” “The signal to them is that the impeachment path has been closed as part of a deal with Washington.”

Washington’s growing influence

Venezuela’s announcement also comes at a time when the administration of US President Donald Trump has intensified its attacks against the court, describing it as illegitimate and vowing to dismantle it “stone by stone.”

Against this backdrop, analysts say the timing of Venezuela’s formal withdrawal has added evidence that Caracas is increasingly aligning its foreign policy with Washington.

“I have said before that Venezuela is a protectorate in all but name, and this validates it,” Rodriguez said. “A government that abandons its commitment to a multilateral treaty on another country’s diplomatic campaign schedule is not conducting its own foreign policy.”

Rodriguez noted that while the National Assembly’s vote in December was “defensive, a way to isolate Maduro and senior officials from the investigation that was closing in on them,” the decision to formally notify the UN came after the Trump administration launched a public campaign urging countries to leave the ICC.

Just two days before Venezuela’s announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called ICC officials “crazy and crazy” and warned that the court would face “consequences” if it tried to assert jurisdiction over Americans.

“The United States has publicly welcomed the withdrawal and urged other countries to do the same, which shows you what agenda is being developed,” Rodriguez said, pointing to a broader pattern of policy moves under Delcy Rodriguez, including changes to Venezuela’s energy policy and its first official engagement with Israel since 2009.

He said: “I am not aware of any meaningful decision taken by this government that was opposed by Washington.” “If this is true, then withdrawal from the ICC does not require a separate explanation.”

The court is under pressure

Venezuela’s withdrawal is one of the latest setbacks for the ICC as it faces increasing political and institutional challenges.

Chad on Monday also announced plans to withdraw from the ICC, saying its effectiveness was “limited and uneven,” and accusing it of focusing disproportionately on African countries, noting that “the court has only seven people in detention, six of whom are being tried in African cases.”

Chad’s withdrawal comes after similar moves by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger last year, but the Chad government said its decision came after Washington urged it to reconsider its membership.

“The American side expressed its concern about the work of this institution and called on Chad to review its accession to the Rome Statute,” a statement published on the Foreign Minister’s website on Thursday said.

On top of continuing pressure from the Trump administration, the ICC on Friday also lost its elected prosecutor after member states voted to sack Karim Khan over sexual assault allegations, which he denies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, welcomed Khan’s dismissal and said he spoke to Rubio, who assured him of Washington’s determination to act against what he described as an institution that “undermines justice.”

But Kirsten said the biggest threat is not Washington itself.

He said: “It is not the American opposition that is killing the International Criminal Court.” “It will be silence and indifference on the part of its member states.”

Instead of trying to convince the Trump administration to change course, he said countries that support the court should work to bring more countries to the ICC.

“I think that’s the real response,” he said. “It’s not just rhetoric.”

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