The complaint filed with the International Criminal Court seeks to investigate the violation of human rights by the Venezuelan government

Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru are the Latin American countries that decided, on September 27, to bring a letter before the International Criminal Court (ICC), so that it may investigate "alleged crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela since February 12, 2014," reported El Espectador. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, also signed the petition.

Leer en español: Venezuela: Francia se manifiesta en contra de la dictadura

To these American countries, a European power also joined: France. This was announced by the Colombian president, Iván Duque, in the middle of a civil ceremony held in the country. According to Duque, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, "supports the accusation that we signed six countries against the dictatorship of Venezuela before the ICC."

Also, the Colombian president acknowledged that the support of Macron, as well as that of the other six nations, represents "an act of solidarity with the Venezuelan people" and a "support for democracy and freedoms" in Latin America.

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What are the implications of France's inclusion in this complaint?

The decision made by the six signatory countries before the ICC is a historical fact against the Venezuelan regime that, since 2015, has left about 2.3 million migrants (approximately 5000 per day), according to the High Commission of the Nations. United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

However, this action would be short before the international community without the support of major world powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom or France. So, fortunately, for the six complainant nations, the latter joined their complaint.

Thanks to the inclusion of France as a country that supports the denunciation against Venezuela, "several other countries could join the group very soon and strengthen it," said Andrés Oppenheimer, a columnist for El Colombiano. According to Oppenheimer, "France can move the board", because, according to several of its sources, the French government "is talking to Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, among other European countries."

With this, one could speak of a reaffirmation on the part of the international community to intervene, politically, in Venezuelan territory, something that the ICC already did in February of this year. Week magazine recalled that on the 8th of that month the international organization had already opened a preliminary investigation, but only to clarify the events that occurred "at least since April 2017", added El Espectador.

The United States and Venezuela: the flip side of the coin

On the other side of the scale are the United States and, directly affected, Venezuela.

In the American case, the position before the decisions of the ICC is negative, as demonstrated by its president, Donald Trump, on September 25, before the United Nations (UN). In his speech, the first president attacked the ICC, arguing that it has "no legitimacy or authority." " We will never relinquish US sovereignty to a bureaucracy that is not accountable or has been elected by anyone," Trump said.

The dissatisfaction of the US government towards the international organization has its roots, according to El País, in the investigation of "alleged war crimes committed by US troops in Afghanistan", which the ICC presides over; which, of course, has not been seen with good eyes in the White House.

Venezuela, for its part, did not attack the ICC, but France, after its inclusion in the complaint against the South American country. The FM affirmed that the Venezuelan government assumed that decision as an "arrogant attitude assumed by the French Government," and that "it negatively impacts the good relations that both countries have sustained for decades."

Also, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry described this intervention as a strategy "to improve the discredited image of President Macron and his Government."

LatinAmerican Post | Christopher Ramírez Hernández

Translated from: 'Venezuela: Francia se manifiesta en contra de la dictadura'

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