Foreign Minister Yvan Gil remembered in a statement that the Bolivarian Republic was the first country in the Americas to ratify the Rome Statute and, since then, “has shown a firm commitment to the ICC system.”
Gil noted that Caracas has engaged in good faith with the Office of the Prosecutor of the Criminal Court in a process that, by all accounts, “does not fall within the provisions of the Rome Statute, but which seeks to satisfy the anti-Venezuela agenda promoted by hegemonic centers.”
Despite this, Venezuela—in a clear spirit of international cooperation—”committed itself to mechanisms of positive complementarity, aimed at strengthening national capacities to ensure the effective administration of justice,” and reaffirmed that “Venezuelan primary jurisdiction is irreplaceable,” he emphasized.
He remembered that, in this process, Venezuela and the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC signed two memoranda of understanding and a roadmap to establish mechanisms that effectively contribute to national efforts in the areas of justice and human rights.
He also lamented that this organ of the International Criminal Court “showed not the slightest commitment or spirit of cooperation, and despite more than seven months having passed since the inauguration of its office in Caracas, the Office of the Prosecutor never appointed any personnel to fill those positions.”
Nor did it formulate its contributions and recommendations to Venezuela’s various initiatives, irresponsibly shirking the responsibilities previously assumed, while its agenda in the country was very clear: to disengage and do nothing in order to later instrumentalize justice for political ends, he stated.
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