On Friday, the Venezuelan regime's current Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia announced that "interim president" Delcy Rodríguez had instructed him to express to the current UN secretary-general that Venezuela had made the "firm and irrevocable decision to denounce the Rome Statute and initiate its definitive withdrawal from the [International Criminal Court (ICC)], in accordance with Article 127." He added:
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. This pattern reveals an international justice system that, far from being applied equitably, has been instrumentalized to deepen inequalities among peoples and disregard their right to self-determination and sovereignty.
This bias is not a mere procedural coincidence, but the reflection of an institution that has placed its mechanisms at the service of interests alien to justice and the peoples it claims to protect. For this reason, we reject this dimension of lawfare, which perpetuates the persecution against the Venezuelan people and exacerbates the inequalities that international justice should correct. We reiterate our commitment to a genuinely equitable justice, respectful of the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples.
The United States State Department responded almost immediately on Saturday, welcoming the move and calling on all other members to follow the South American nation's lead. It also pointed out that the court serves no real purpose, as it had been investigating Nicolás Maduro since 2018 with "no result." Here's more:
The United States welcomes the decision by interim President Delcy Rodriguez and Venezuela to withdraw from the ICC and the new Venezuelan government’s partnership on American-led efforts to dismantle the corrupt and worthless ICC. The so-called court has been 'investigating' Nicolas Maduro since 2018 with no result. The ICC has instead wasted its resources on investigating and charging persons from countries that have competent, independent judicial systems and which never submitted to the jurisdiction of the court. This is blatant overreach, political bias and selective enforcement. The ICC is neither credible, independent, nor legitimate. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and the efforts of brave American service members, Maduro is now facing justice in a U.S. court for crimes he has committed. It is time to dismantle the ICC. The U.S. calls on all members of the ICC to withdraw from the Rome Statute.
Related: Rubio to ICC: Hands Off the United States — Oh, And We're Shutting You Down
If you'll remember, Marco Rubio came out a couple of weeks ago and basically told the ICC where it could go and said the United States will dismantle it "brick by brick, if necessary." Here's something I wrote about that earlier this month:
We're starting by launching a diplomatic campaign with a simple message: 'sovereign states over globalism.' He added that, 'Those who benefit from American security must not stand idly by while those who provide that security are targeted.'
And that's only the beginning, Rubio said. We'll use every tool at our disposal to take down the ICC with the help of every ally really to join our cause.
Recommended: Marco’s Moment: What Happens Next in Venezuela Could Define Rubio’s Legacy
Of course, we also know that Rubio is largely running Venezuela, so this isn't some big coincidence. Delcy and the rest of the regime were given their orders and followed them. It's mutually beneficial. These criminals still overseeing the country buy themselves some insulation against future warrants, and Rubio kicks off his diplomatic campaign to encourage other countries to follow with a concrete example.
As the State Department mentioned, Venezuela is no stranger to the ICC. In 2018, several other Western Hemisphere countries — Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru — referred the regime and its security forces to the court for "crimes against humanity," largely based on crackdowns on protests in 2014 and 2017 that led to death, violence, arbitrary detentions, and forms of torture, including severe beatings, electric shocks, asphyxiation, sexual assault, and other brutal techniques.
In 2021, under prosecutor Karim Khan, the ICC opened a case against Maduro's regime, while also signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with it, promising cooperation and "positive complementarity" — which is basically letting Venezuela handle cases domestically if it can show genuine progress. For two years, nothing happened but a lot of talk. During this period, the regime claimed it was conducting its own investigations.
In 2023, after no progress, the ICC reopened the investigation and even set up a technical office in Caracas to work with Venezuelan authorities. However, the court shut it down, claiming it received no cooperation. There's also the factor that Khan’s sister-in-law, Venkateswari Alagendra, is a lawyer representing Maduro's regime. Not a conflict of interest at all. In 2025, a judge ordered Khan to recuse himself from the case, a case on which there has still been no progress made.
In 2026, the Donald Trump administration took matters into its own hands and decided that we'd prosecute Maduro on our soil, but this comes after seven plus years of the ICC dragging its feet on one of the most abusive regimes in the world.
To put that in perspective, on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, and Khan applied for arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in May of 2024, roughly seven months later. There's no bias going on here. Nothing to see.
But this also shows us that Venezuela was already hostile toward the court.
It's also important to note the language used by the regime. It says the court has "disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries." This is true and could go a long way in encouraging other countries in Africa and Latin America to withdraw.
As a matter of fact, on Monday, the African nation of Chad announced that it's leaving the ICC. The main reason is that the court has shown "limited effectiveness" in achieving its stated objectives and has "disproportionately focused on African countries, creating the perception of selective justice." The country's foreign minister also said that the "U.S. deputy secretary of state for African affairs had pressed the Chadian government to reconsider its ICC membership during a telephone call on Thursday."
I've noted several members of the MSM on Monday attributing Chad's decision to withdraw to Khan's recent firing over sexual misconduct, but that's not the full picture. We already knew Khan and the ICC were corrupt and essentially worthless. This has much more to do with Rubio's State Department's new pressure campaign on countries that depend on us for security, and Chad even admits to that.
A high-profile Latin American country backed out, and as a bonus, a high-profile African country did the same 48 hours later. Both countries already had their reasons for wanting to do so; Rubio just gave them permission and made it a bit more low-risk for them. But it sets a concrete precedent for other governments balancing their own ICC grievances, as well as their relationships with the United States, to follow.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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