Venezuela will withdraw from the International Criminal Court, accusing it of “bias”. ICC images

The announcement comes as Venezuela comes closer to the Trump administration, which has vowed to ‘stop’ the international court.

The government of Venezuela has told the United Nations that it will leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), referring to what it says is the organization’s “bias” against countries in the Global South.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felix Plasencia, said on Friday in the press that Venezuela informed the UN about the “irreversible” decision to leave the court at the order of the interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who wants to unite his government with the United States.

“Venezuela considers that what the Court is doing shows the bias that has been there, which has focused its work on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the South,” said Plasencia. “This practice shows the mechanisms of international justice that, instead of being used properly, have served to increase inequality among people and ignore their right to self-determination and self-determination.”

The ICC announced in 2021 that it would be possible crimes against humanity and the Venezuelan government during the fight against anti-government protests in 2017, and the Venezuelan Parliament voted in December last year to end its commitments under the Rome Statute.

The ICC is sometimes criticized for failing to apply the same principles to Western leaders as those of the Global South, and National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez has previously described the body as a tool of “American imperialism”.

But Friday’s announcement comes at a time when Venezuela has been pushed to align more closely with US policy, and a week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would do so. to campaign “Systematic restriction” of his ability to work.

Delcy Rodriguez took power after ousting former President Nicolas Maduro in a military coup in January.

The country’s relationship with the US has come under threat of further military action.

The US is itself a strong opponent of the international court, which the Trump administration has sought to undermine through various means, including sanctions against prosecutors involved in investigations into the activities of US and Israeli forces.

Rubio accused the ICC last week of “fighting with our country, not with bullets or arrows, but with laws, compacts, and the power of so-called international law”.

This move also comes as others have done they argued that the Venezuelan government has been working on a way to reestablish relations with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted by a court of law for war crimes in Gaza.