The victims of the violence unleashed in Venezuela in 2017 hope that the International Criminal Court (ICC) recognizes that they were persecuted for defending their political and social rights. That it be demonstrated, ultimately, that the violations and abuses suffered in that context constitute crimes against humanity and that there may be a form of reparation. His voice has hovered over the Court’s Appeals Chamber, which closed two days of sessions this Wednesday on the investigation that the Prosecutor’s Office hopes to carry out in the South American country. The defense of the Government of Venezuela denies the existence of a state plan of repression and considers that the presence of the TPI in this matter responds to external political interests. Prosecutors, however, point out that judicial work in Caracas is scarce and fear that there is a vacuum of impunity. The judges must decide from now on whether the Prosecutor’s Office can move forward with the case.
It is the first time that the Venezuelan victims of the anti-government protests carried out between April and July 2017, in which there were more than one hundred dead, made their voices heard. They have not done it in person but through Paolina Massidda, lead lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender for Victims (OPCV) of the CFI. “At this very moment, as we speak, crimes continue to be committed with impunity in Venezuela,” she said. After ensuring that the Venezuelan authorities “do not investigate as the ICC Prosecutor’s Office would do,” she stressed that the suffering of those who have suffered rape or sexual abuse “is specific within the framework of persecution.” “These crimes cannot be investigated on a national scale as if they were just acts of cruelty. Discriminatory intent must be demonstrated and the context must be recognized,” she said. Massidda has indicated that Venezuelan courts have dismissed cases of this nature, “but there are acts of torture and rape in detention centers; threats and illegally detained political opponents; abuses to the victims and their families.” The victims, she concluded, “are seeking justice and waiting for the resumption of the Prosecutor’s investigations to be confirmed.” “Only a comprehensive approach will allow us to find out the truth.”
In response, the British Ben Emmerson, one of the lawyers hired by the Venezuelan Government, has denied that the CFI has jurisdiction in this case, “unless there was a state policy of repression, which we deny.” When referring to the requests for justice from rape victims, he has been curt. He has said: “That rhetoric of feelings can be applied to many crimes. Here a generalized non-existent State policy has been invented to go to the CFI, and a usurpation of the judicial function by the Prosecutor’s Office. “Venezuela already investigates each case based on its own facts.” His exalted tone was considered inappropriate by the judges of the Court of Appeal, who shortly afterwards asked everyone present to show good manners in a court of law.
Yvan Gil, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, has been authorized to participate in the final session of the appeal as a representative of the State and has admitted that “there may have been isolated incidents by officials.” These are, he added, “acts against human rights, not crimes against humanity.” He then was as forceful as Emmerson and gave the following account: “More than 250 State agents are being investigated. “The investigations in Venezuela surpass everything done by the TPI in its twenty years of existence.” Once it was clarified that it was not “a competition”, he warned that the territorial state “is the best placed to judge and local justice guarantees deterrence because it is closer.” “Venezuela has nothing to hide. We ask for a balanced treatment that restores the legality broken with this case,” he concluded.
In 2020, the ICC Prosecutor’s Office, which had carried out a preliminary examination of the Venezuela case, concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of this court had occurred.” An investigation was opened in 2021, postponed when Caracas alleged that national authorities were already investigating the facts. In 2023, the court authorized the chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to resume his work because the case was not moving forward. “There is a degree of planning in the crime against humanity and Venezuela has not been able to demonstrate that it was investigating it. He said that they were isolated acts, but that can only be known when it is investigated,” the prosecution team explained this Wednesday. In their final argument they have emphasized that a State can analyze a systematic attack against civilians “even if they do not include the concept of a crime against humanity in their regulations.” “Otherwise, they cannot comment on the extent of the damage and the damage itself caused.” At this point, the prosecutors asserted that Venezuela’s investigations “do not reflect discriminatory intent and sexual crimes, and the ICC Prosecutor’s Office can investigate crimes that concern the international community.” They will recuse themselves, they have said, “if it is shown that Venezuela reflects in its work what this court is investigating.”
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