Venezuela to exit International Criminal Court, accusing it of ‘bias’

Announcement comes as Venezuela has hewed close to Trump administration, who has pledged to’disable’ international court.The government of Venezuela has informed the United Nations that it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), citing what it calls the body’s “bias” against countries in the Global South.Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia said in a social media post on Friday that Venezuela had informed the UN of its “irrevocable” decision to withdraw from the court on the orders of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who has sought to align her government more closely with the United States.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Legal challenge says Trump ICC sanctions tread on US citizens’ rightslist 2 of 3Ilhan Omar renews push for US to join ICC amid Trump pressurelist 3 of 3ICC prosecutor Karim Khan faces removal vote: What’s the case about?end of list“Venezuela considers that the Court’s actions reflect a demonstrated geographical bias, which has disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the Global South,” Plasencia said. “This pattern reveals an international justice system that, far from being applied equitably, has been instrumentalised to deepen inequalities among peoples and disregard their right to self-determination and sovereignty.”The ICC announced in 2021 that it would probe possible crimes against humanity by the Venezuelan government during a crackdown on antigovernment protests in 2017, and Venezuela’s National Assembly voted in December of last year to cancel its commitments to the Rome Statute.The ICC has sometimes been criticised for failing to apply the same standards to Western leaders as those from the Global South, and National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez previously described the body as an instrument of “American imperialism”.But Friday’s announcement comes at a time when Venezuela has been pulled into greater alignment with the policies of the United States, and one week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would wage a campaign to “systematically disable” its ability to function.