File photo of protests against the government of questioned President Nicolás Maduro on April 6, 2017 in Caracas.
(Credit: Juan Barreto / AFP / Getty Images)
(CNN Spanish) -
The International Criminal Court reported this Thursday in a statement that its attorney general, Fatou Bensouda, determined that "there is a reasonable basis" to believe that crimes have occurred in Venezuela that fall within the jurisdiction of the Court that must be investigated.
The announcement was released after a meeting on Wednesday between Bensouda and an official Venezuelan delegation, in which the Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, and the Ombudsman, Alfredo Ruiz, participated.
Saab posted on Twitter a photo of the meeting held in The Hague, Netherlands.
And he stressed that the objective of the meeting was to provide details of the progress of the Venezuelan justice system "to punish human rights violations."
The prosecutor added that there is a commitment on the part of Venezuela and its institutions "to investigate, prosecute, accuse and convict those responsible for violating human rights."
The statement comes amid two preliminary analyzes.
The first, identified as Venezuela I, refers to crimes allegedly committed in the midst of various protests since at least 2017. The second, Venezuela II, consists of references to possible crimes against humanity committed in Venezuelan territory since 2018. The Court highlights who has made progress and is waiting to make decisions.
The civil association Acceso a la Justicia, a human rights observatory in Venezuela, published on Twitter that the declaration of the International Criminal Court is transcendental.
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They explained that in the next stage, the analysis must determine whether the alleged perpetrators of these crimes have been tried in the country.
CNN has tried to elicit a reaction from the embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
So far no response has been obtained.
For his part, the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, criticized that the International Criminal Court has received prosecutor Tarek William Saab, whom he considers supposedly "without quality" for having been appointed by the controversial National Constituent Assembly instead of Parliament. .
However, the opposition leader and recognized by at least 55 countries as the president in charge of Venezuela considers that it is "a slap to the dictatorship" to say that there are reasons for investigating the government for alleged crimes against humanity.
He said it is one more step, although not the final one.
International Criminal Court