Walter Márquez requested speed in the case against Nicolás Maduro

Procedural speed in the investigation of the Venezuela I case, for crimes against humanity and life imprisonment against Nicolás Maduro, was requested by the human rights defender, president of the El Amparo Foundation and general director of the International Committee Against Impunity in Venezuela (CICIVEN), Walter Márquez, during his visit on September 12 to the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague.

The human rights defender had a meeting at the Office of Victims Participation and Reparation where he spoke about the rights of victims in Venezuela and the process that is being carried out in the International Criminal Court, and established contact with the office headed by Paulina Massidda, head of the Office of Public Defense of Victims where he submitted a document confirming and expanding information on the crimes against humanity committed on the border with Colombia.

“I requested, given the seriousness of the events and the numerous victims of this process, speedy proceedings and life imprisonment for Nicolás Maduro according to Article 77 of the Rome Statute, because the seriousness of the events and the number of victims so require. There are more than 11,560 victims who came forward in the appeals of the Venezuela I case, after the prosecutor of the Court, Karim Khan, opened the investigation on November 3, 2021; the Preliminary Affairs Chamber ratified this power on June 27, 2023, and the Appeals Chamber confirmed it on March 1, 2024,” explained Márquez.

Other evidence, according to Marquez

The human rights defender stated that he also submitted new evidence of 24,000 victims listed in the Single Registry of Victims (RUD), forced deportations, displacements, destruction of homes that occurred between Táchira, Venezuela and Colombia, and the persecution of Colombians ordered by Nicolás Maduro starting on August 19, 2015 during the border closures.

He insisted that prosecutor Karim Kan has the obligation to meet with the victims, just as he has done with Nicolás Maduro on three occasions in Miraflores.

Walter Márquez believes that at this time when Venezuela is seeking a political and peaceful solution to its democratic crisis, the International Criminal Court must act by exercising justice. “From The Hague we are demanding that there be justice in The Hague, so Mr. Prosecutor, in addition to listening to Maduro, listen to the victims who are demanding justice.”.