The International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, has cleared the United States of crimes against humanity against Venezuela for sanctions. File Photo by Robin Utrecht/EPA
March 12 (UPI) — The International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor announced Thursday that the United States did not commit crimes against humanity with its sanctions against Venezuela.
The investigation, called Venezuela II by the court, was referred to the court by Venezuela’s government in 2020, alleging that sanctions against the country had caused suffering and hardship.
The referral from now-deposed President Nicolas Maduro alleges the suffering of Venezuelans from “the application of unlawful coercive measures adopted unilaterally by the government of the United States of America against Venezuela, at least since the year 2014.”
Venezuela alleged that “murder, extermination, deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts constituting crimes against humanity” were committed, the OTP said.
The ICC prosecutor determined that the “evidential requirements of causation and intent are not met.”
The evidence “must provide a reasonable basis to believe that sanctions by the United States of America led to murder, displacement or other alleged crimes,” the OTP said.
The decision is unrelated to the January 2026 events in Venezuela, the prosecutor noted.
In January, the United States invaded Venezuela, arrested Maduro and his wife and took them to Manhattan, where they await trial on drug trafficking charges.
The ICC prosecutor said it is still investigating “Venezuela I,” a case that doesn’t involve the United States.
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