The report issued by the Independent International Mission established by the UN Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in Venezuela could hardly go unnoticed (see Human Rights Council, Forty-Fifth sesión, 14 september-2 October 2020, Agenda Item 4, Human Rights Situation that Require the Council’s attention, Detailed findings of the Independent International fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFMV/A_HRC_45_CRP.11.pdf&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1)
The report was particularly detailed in its account of the political events that have taken place in Venezuela since 2014, as opposed to the previous reports to which we were accustomed by the UN Human Rights Council, where for the first time we see in black and white that the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros has committed crimes against humanity as set forth in the Rome Statute:
2084. The violations and crimes documented in this report correspond to conduct that may be legally qualified, under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, as the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, rape or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity, enforced disappearance3645 of persons and other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. (P. 403)
The independent mission also established the "systematic" nature of the crimes committed. It is very important to specify that if there is anything that has been difficult to demonstrate independently, it is that the acts that the regime has carried out against the Venezuelan people are part of “a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack” as established in Article 7 of the Rome Statute, which created the International Criminal Court, as the definition of crimes against humanity (see Rome Statute https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/documents/rs-eng.pdf):
2086. As further elaborated below, the Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that most of the violations and crimes documented in this report were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy. In relation to these crimes, the Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity were committed in Venezuela in the period under review. (highlighted our, P. 403)
Indeed, neither in the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the observation of human rights in Venezuela published in August 2017, entitled “Human rights violations and abuses in the context of protests in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela from 1 April to 31 July 2017” (see complete Report in http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/VE/HCReportVenezuela_1April-31July2017_EN.pdf)), as well as in the Annual Report of the High Commissioner of the Unaited Nations for Human Rights and Reports to the Office of the Hich Commissioner and Secretary General (see Human Rights Council, 41º period of session s, Item 2 of the agenda, Annual Report of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights and Reports to the Office of the High Commissioner and Secretary General, https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/Countries/VE/A_HRC_41_18_Add.1.docx&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1) nowhere does the phrase or reference to the fact that crimes against humanity, as established in the Rome Statute, are being committed in Venezuela, and this is a reason for classifying those who hold power in Venezuela as criminal offenses. This difference is established in this new Report of the UN Commission on Human Rights. This marks a fundamental milestone from which the UN will not be able to become indifferent and may be the real beginning of a change in the policy of all States in the situation of Venezuela.
According to Article 13 of the Rome Statute, three entities are competent to initiate proceedings at the International Criminal Court, ICC: a) A situation in which one or more of such crimes appears to have been committed is referred to the Prosecutor by a State Party in accordance with article 14; b) A situation in which one or more of such crimes appears to have been committed is referred to the Prosecutor by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations; or c) The Prosecutor has initiated an investigation in respect of such a crime in accordance with article 15. (Article 15.1 Rome Statute) (see in Spanish Sobre la instrucción del proceso penal ante el Tribunal Penal Internacional http://perso.unifr.ch/derechopenal/assets/files/articulos/a_20080521_90.pdf).
After many years and multiple denunciations made by Venezuelans before the International Criminal Court, it was not until September 27, 2018 that the ICC admitted the denunciation of the governments of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Canada, who as State Parties, in accordance with Articles 13 and 14 of the Rome Statute, requested the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes against humanity and human rights abuses that occurred in Venezuela since April 12, 2014 under the government of Nicolás Maduro Moros. From that point on, the bureaucracy of the ICC began to move and register the process in the next formal step towards a possible opening of an investigation for a trial in the Pre-Trial Chamber (see ICC, Situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela I, in https://www.icc-cpi.int/venezuela).
However, the same Court indicates in the Situation of Venezuela that “A State Party referral does not automatically lead to the opening of an investigation. The receipt of a referral may expedite the process of opening an investigation only to the extent that judicial review of the Prosecutor's decision to open an investigation would not be required under the Statute”. In other words, if the Prosecutor misleads the process, it stays there. This new UN report may make it impossible for the ICC Prosecutor to ignore this clearly scandalous situation for the International Criminal Court.
The opening of an investigation should be the obligatory step of the International Criminal Court after the explicit indication of the commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela and the establishment of those responsible for such crimes. The report points to the main political and military commands of the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros:
273. A common pattern appearing in nearly all the cases investigated was that high-level Government officers, including President Maduro, Diosdado Cabello and Tarek El Aissami, as well as Attorney General Tarek William Saab, made public statements referring to detentions either shortly before or shortly after they took place and commenting on the criminal responsibility of the accused. A former SEBIN officer told the Mission that the information that Diosdado Cabello collects is received from the SEBIN counterintelligence directorate. The Mission believes that these statements damage the presumption of innocence and could affect judicial independence, in violation of article 14 of the ICCPR. (P. 77)
312. The Mission observes that these statements damaged the presumption of innocence while also putting pressure on the judicial actors, in violation of article 14 (1) and (2) of the ICCPR. Government representatives who often made declarations included President Maduro, Diosdado Cabello (in his television show “Con el Mazo Dando”); Minister of Communications, Jorge Rodriguez Gomez; Minister of Defence, Vladimir Padrino Lopez; and/or Minister of the Interior, Nestor Reverol. (P. 84)
2023. For the reasons above, the Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that those in the highest positions of power regarding the OLPs/OLHPs, in particular the President, the Minister of the Interior, and the Minister of Defence contributed to the commission of the violations and crimes that occurred during the operations between July 2015 and July 2017. During the period of the OLPs, the Ministers of the Interior were Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez (between March 2015 and August 2016) and Nestor Reverol Torres (August 2016 to present).Since October 2014, General Vladimir Padrino Lopez has been Minister of Defence, having taken over from Admiral Carmen Melendez Teresa Rivas (2013-2014). (P. 392)
This should be more than enough for the ICC Prosecutor's Office to begin its investigation with the information from this UN Independent Mission. Mission member Marta Valiñas of Portugal indicated that the "International Criminal Court "should consider taking legal action" against those responsible for these crimes against humanity”. (see in Spanish PanamPost El silencio absoluto de la Corte Penal Internacional ante crímenes de Maduro, en https://es.panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2020/09/17/el-silencio-absoluto-de-la-corte-penal-internacional-ante-crimenes-de-maduro/). I hardly think anything more can be said or investigated about the crimes committed by the regime, unless they aggravate them. The rest is left to international justice, if the International Criminal Court gives justice to all Venezuelans, who have been and continue to be victims of Nicolás Maduro Moros…
Caracas, September 20, 2020
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