[2] In February 2018, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it would open preliminary probes into alleged crimes against humanity performed by Venezuelan authorities.

[5] In May 2018, a Panel of Independent International Experts appointed by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) concluded that reasonable grounds existed to believe that crimes against humanity had been committed in Venezuela dating back to at least 12 February 2014 and recommended that the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, should submit the report and the evidence collected by the General Secretariat of the OAS to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, that he should invite States Parties to the Rome Statute to refer the situation of Venezuela to the Office of the Prosecutor and to call for the opening of an investigation into the facts set forth in the report, in accordance with Article 14 of the Rome Statute.

[6] On 27 September 2018, six states parties to the Rome Statute: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, referred the situation in Venezuela since 12 February 2014 to the ICC, requesting the Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to initiate an investigation on crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the territory.

[8] Nicolás Maduro's Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, filed a complaint in the ICC against the United States on 13 February 2020, arguing that policy of sanctions has resulted in crimes against humanity.

[10] In September 2020, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela published their findings and cited evidence of unlawful executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture in the country since 2014.

[4] In May 2021, Maduro's Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, admitted that Fernando Albán, Caracas councilman who died in 2018 while he was detained in the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), did not commit suicide as initially reported by government officials, but was killed, and that during the 2017 Venezuelan protests student Juan Pablo Pernalete was killed with a tear gas canister by security forces, something initially denied by senior officials.

[16] The opposition National Assembly headed by Juan Guaidó declared that William Saab sought to prevent the ICC from acting and condemned that command chain was not being investigated.

[17] On July 2, the Pre-Trial Chamber dismissed a request for "judicial control" filed by William Saab, who alleged a lack of complementarity and collaboration of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor with Venezuela.

[1] On 17 January 2022, the Prosecutor's Office indicated that under Article 18 (2) of the Rome Statute, the administration of Nicolás Maduro had three months to submit its report on investigations by Venezuelan courts into crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela.

The NGO PROVEA warned that the communiqué was part of the Maduro government's dilatory strategy to paralyze the ICC prosecutor's investigation for as long as possible, expressing: "This communication ratifies the Venezuelan authorities' contempt for the victims and their claims for justice, as well as their unwillingness to genuinely comply with the principle of complementarity".

[26] On 28 February, the Venezuelan government issued a statement in which it described the accusations against it as "fallacies" and denied that crimes against humanity had occurred in the country, arguing that the investigation had a "political character".

[27][28][29] The NGO Control Ciudadano warned that such actions by the Maduro government sought to discredit the ICC Prosecutor's Office and that it was evidence that the international court should exercise its jurisdiction over the cases under its investigation.