The Daily Journal — Venezuela’s government, under the leadership of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, formally notified United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday of its “firm and irrevocable” decision to denounce the Rome Statute and begin the country’s formal withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), in accordance with Article 127 of the court’s founding treaty.
Foreign Affairs Minister Félix Plasencia González announced the decision through his social media accounts, where he released the Venezuelan government’s official statement.
In the document, Venezuela argues that “the Court’s actions reflect a demonstrated geographic bias that has focused disproportionately on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the Global South.”
The government also maintains that this pattern reveals “an international justice system that, rather than applying justice equitably, has served as an instrument to deepen inequalities among nations and disregard their right to self-determination and sovereignty.”
“This bias is not merely a procedural coincidence but the reflection of an institution that has placed its mechanisms at the service of interests unrelated to justice and to the peoples it claims to protect,” Foreign Minister Plasencia said in the statement.
Caracas also rejected what it described as a dimension of lawfare—or judicial warfare—which, according to the government, “perpetuates persecution against the Venezuelan people and deepens the inequalities that international justice should seek to correct.”
“We reaffirm our commitment to a genuinely fair system of justice that respects the sovereignty and self-determination of all peoples,” Plasencia concluded.
Article 127 of the Rome Statute states that “any State Party may withdraw from this Statute by written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.” The withdrawal takes effect one year after the Secretary-General receives the notification unless the notice specifies a later date.
During that one year, Venezuela will remain bound by the treaty’s provisions regarding situations that the Court is already examining.
Relations between Venezuela and the ICC have remained tense for years. The Court continues to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed in the country since 2017, a process that Nicolás Maduro’s government has consistently described as politically motivated persecution driven by geopolitical interests.
In December 2025, Venezuela’s ruling-party-controlled National Assembly unanimously approved legislation repealing the country’s adherence to the Rome Statute. Earlier, the ICC Prosecutor’s Office announced the closure of its technical office in Caracas after concluding that the country had failed to demonstrate “real progress” on the principle of complementarity.
