Former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana presented this Friday (6) a legal document on behalf of around 30 former Ibero-American leaders to the Attorney General of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to denounce “widespread and systematic violations of human rights”, including crimes against humanity committed by the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro, calling for “urgent” action.
The document calls for “the immediate arrest and detention” of Maduro, his number two, Diosdado Cabello, and the country’s entire chain of command.
“For the first time, 31 former presidents, former heads of state from Latin America and Spain, have signed a document calling for the immediate arrest and detention of Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello and the entire chain of command in Venezuela,” former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana told EFE, who, on behalf of the signatories, presented a six-page legal report to the ICC’s Attorney General’s Office.
The signatories pointed out that “the events before and after the presidential elections of July 28 in Venezuela” are a “practice of “state terrorism”. Among those involved in drafting the text are the Spaniards Felipe González, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy; as well as the Colombians Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque; the Argentine Mauricio Macri; the Mexican Vicente Fox and the Bolivian Carlos Mesa.
And, in this sense, they highlighted that “the crimes against humanity that were carried out and continue to be carried out in a continuous line, including the recent arrest warrant against the truly elected president, Edmundo González Urrutia, are the work of an operational military structure whose chain of command is exercised directly by Nicolás Maduro Moros.”
Presented by Pastrana, the legal document against the Chavista dictatorship has the support of 31 members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA-Democratica), a forum formed by former heads of state and government.
Former leaders call on ICC Prosecutor General’s Office to “become aware of the president’s responsibility” [ditador] Maduro in all the criminal acts that are being committed,” he told EFE Agency Spanish criminal lawyer Blas Jesús Imbroda, who accompanied Pastrana in the presentation of the legal report, together with former Venezuelan ambassador Víctor Rodríguez Cedeño, negotiator of the ICC’s Rome Statute.
In six pages, the report legally explains that “Maduro is the commander-in-chief, the head, the pinnacle of power, because in addition to being the head of government, he is the commander-in-chief.”
“That’s where the so-called Strategic Operational Command operates, which he commands and which executes the policy of state terror in Venezuela,” said Imbroda.
This complaint, which extends to members of the Venezuelan Army for being the fundamental support of the Maduro regime, is added to the case opened against Venezuela at the ICC.
“The military regime now in power and replacing the civil republic is the true owner of the powers of the State and economic wealth, and is responsible, as a repressive and terrorist military dictatorship, for the crimes investigated by the Court, recreating in Venezuela the tragic experience of the military dictatorships of the Southern Cone of Latin America,” said the former leaders.
In November 2021, the ICC Prosecutor General’s Office opened a formal investigation against Venezuela after examining complaints from Peru, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay alleging that crimes against humanity had been committed in the country since February 12, 2014.
The attorney general’s office, which declined to comment to protect the “confidentiality” of the proceedings, said in August that it was “actively monitoring” the situation in Venezuela after the presidential elections held in July, which Maduro claims to have won and which much of the international community has not recognized because it could not see the detailed results.
In a statement released to the press at the time, the attorney general’s office confirmed that it had received “multiple reports of violence and other allegations following the election” and invited any “individuals and organizations” who might have “information that could be relevant” to the ongoing investigation to come forward.
Additionally, Attorney General Karim Khan said his department “engaged with the Venezuelan regime at the highest level to emphasize the importance of ensuring that the rule of law is respected at this time and to emphasize that all persons must be protected from violations that may constitute crimes under the Rome Statute.” The ICC investigation is being conducted against Venezuela and not against any authority in the Latin American country.
The “core” of the legal report presented by the former leaders focuses on the existence of the Constitutional Law of the Bolivarian National Armed Force, sanctioned on January 29, 2020, which appoints Maduro as commander-in-chief, so that since then he has been the highest hierarchical authority of the Army, according to the law.
“It is important because, according to this document, Venezuela ceases to be a civilian state and becomes a military state,” Pastrana said, and Maduro, in his role as supreme commander, is “directly responsible for what is happening through the operational chain of command” as well as the other positions, since “due diligence today is no longer an excuse to exempt oneself from investigations.”
“There is state terrorism promoted directly by the leader of the Republic,” argued Pastrana, who offered the International Criminal Court the cooperation of the IDEA group to obtain “evidence, proof, legal support” so that it can act “quickly” in the case against Venezuela.
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