Chile’s Senate sent a note to President Gabriel Boric Font, asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for “serious crimes that constitute a threat to peace, security and the welfare of humanity.”
It is not possible to ignore the suffering of thousands of victims due to persecutions of different kinds that have occurred in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for years and especially the persecution suffered by thousands of victims after the presidential electoral event held on July 28 of this year, among which are especially vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and women.
The motion was introduced by conservative senators Felipe Kast of Evopoli and Francisco Chahúan of Renovación Nacional and approved by a simple majority of 21 votes, with no negative votes and no abstentions.
Chilean lawmakers also referred to “crimes and atrocities as brutal as those committed in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” after protests erupted following what many countries considered electoral fraud.
The opposition presented some 83 per cent of the voting protocols confirming the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia with 67 per cent of the vote, whereas the National Electoral Council (CNE) claimed Maduro received 52 per cent of the vote.
However, even if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for Maduro, it remains to be seen how this could be implemented, given Maduro’s defence within Venezuela and allied countries. Last year, the ICC rejected a request from the Venezuelan government that the global court should only intervene if local jurisdictions were not handling the same cases.
