In 2025, Venezuela is experiencing a structural human rights crisis that can no longer be explained merely as political deviation, but rather as the deliberate collapse of the rule of law. The country’s institutions have been reduced to a machinery for legitimizing power, while citizens—deprived of justice and guarantees—struggle to survive in a territory where fear has been normalized as a form of governance.
The recent report by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), presented before the Human Rights Council, reiterates what victims have been denouncing for years: arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions that may constitute crimes against humanity. The mission was categorical: “the only hope for Venezuela’s victims lies in international action.”
However, while testimonies continue to pile up, the response of international justice moves at a bewilderingly slow pace. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite having acknowledged the reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela since at least 2017, has shown no serious progress—although this is the only situation still pending arrest warrants. In August 2025, the Court faced scrutiny when the Appeals Chamber requested the recusal of Prosecutor Karim Khan, citing conflicts of interest due to indirect ties with advisors to the Venezuelan government.
This shadow of partiality not only damages the credibility of the process, but also wounds the trust of victims who have placed their faith in international jurisdiction after years of denial and domestic repression.
At the same time, the Venezuelan regime has expelled the few remaining international voices still documenting the truth. In July 2025, the government declared UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk persona non grata, in open defiance of international monitoring and accountability mechanisms. This decision is not a mere diplomatic gesture—it is a declaration of impunity, an affirmation of the supremacy of irrationality over justice. A country that expels those who document its violations does not demonstrate sovereignty; it reveals its fear of the truth.
Adding to this is a judicial scandal that exposes institutional decay. The lack of independence within Venezuela’s judiciary is now undeniable: prosecutors obey executive orders, judges issue politically motivated rulings rather than decisions based on law, case files are manipulated, evidence fabricated, and persecution has become the norm. The courts, instead of serving as a refuge for citizens, have become one of the regime’s most effective instruments of repression.
Given this reality, the Venezuelan government can no longer claim sovereignty or judicial autonomy. No principle can stand above the protection of peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens)—including the prohibition of international crimes—whose defense constitutes the ICC’s mandate. The regime must understand, once and for all, that keeping the nation in free fall —rather than restoring rights or guaranteeing justice—solely to cling to power, leads to an endless abyss. This is no longer about technical limitations; it is about recognizing that perpetuating rule at the expense of democratic life turns the nation into a decaying body: its economy, institutions, and social trust collapsing in unison. To persist in that logic is to destroy the future; to abandon it would be the only redemptive act capable of halting the spiral and allowing Venezuela to recover its civic breath.
The situation is further aggravated by its international dimension. In October 2025, the United States declared that it maintains a “non-international armed conflict” against non-state actors linked to drug trafficking in waters and territories adjacent to Venezuela.
In this context, the ICC’s inaction becomes untenable. Each day that passes without procedural progress deepens despair in international justice and expands the impunity of those in power. Venezuelan victims are not asking for compassion; they demand that international law fulfill its founding promise—that the gravest crimes shall not go unpunished, regardless of who commits them or where they occur.
The international community—States Parties to the Rome Statute, the European Union, the OAS, and Latin American regional blocs—must publicly demand results and concrete deadlines. Symbolic condemnations are no longer enough. It is well known that in international law, inertia is complicity.
The country needs to breathe justice again. Holding accountable those who have led the State into this abyss is a moral imperative: there can be no peace or reconstruction while truth is silenced and responsibility evaded. Venezuela demands and deserves that the conscience of the international community act with firmness. No more tolerance toward impunity—justice now. The International Criminal Court remains the only global body with a mandate recognized by the international community to prosecute those most responsible for international crimes, especially in contexts marked by irrationality and barbarism. Justice delayed here is not justice denied—it is justice destroyed.