Agatha Isabella Duran Cabrera

UCSG

-Actors involved

The UN investigators have a list of 45 names that would have been directly involved.

-Positions of States on the case

The UN team, which was unable to enter the South American country, says that Venezuela's
security forces have been involved in a systematic use of violence since 2014, in order to
repress political opposition and terrorize the population. .

According to the report, Maduro and his interior and defense ministers were not only aware of
the crimes, but also gave orders, coordinated operations and provided resources.

The UN urged Venezuela to hold those guilty of the events accountable and prevent their
recurrence.

-Process and charges

The government of Venezuela described this Friday as a "great farce" the case presented
before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for possible crimes against humanity in that
country and announced that it sent a report to the prosecutor's office of that body that
"dismantled" the accusations .

The international court based in The Hague began in February 2018 a preliminary examination
to investigate alleged crimes committed since April 2017 in Venezuela in the context of a wave
of protests calling for the departure of President Nicolás Maduro and that left a hundred
dead .

"This is a great farce," launched Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. "The Venezuelan State
defended the peace and tranquility of our people in the face of extremely violent
demonstrations."

"We have been dismantling case by case, based on reality, on facts," the official continued
when presenting a study on what she called a "lynching" against Maduro on social networks,
which she maintains served as the basis for assembling the complaints. .

"From social networks, the parameters were falsely constructed to take Venezuela before the
International Criminal Court," Rodríguez said.

The "big data" study, according to the official, was prepared by "independent experts" who
identified a "small number of users" who "amplified false realities and matrices."

It is "an artificially created case," he added.

The Venezuelan authorities have sent three other reports to the ICC prosecutor's office, whose
former head Fatou Bensouda said at the end of 2020 that "there is a reasonable basis to
believe that crimes that fall within the jurisdiction" of that court had been committed in
Venezuela.
Rodríguez insisted that the military and police acted in 2017 "always with the prohibition of
the use of firearms and President Nicolás Maduro was very clear: first of all respect for life,
respect for human rights."

The attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, announced over the weekend, as part
of this fourth report, the indictment of 12 members of the National Guard for the death of a
20-year-old young man hit by a tear gas bomb in April 2017 , during a protest.

Chavismo said then that the death of the university student had been caused by his fellow
protesters.

-Application of the Rome Statute and jurisdiction of the ICC