Argentina urges ICC to order arrest of Maduro

Buenos Aires claims actions by Venezuela’s government could be considered “crimes against humanity”

Argentina has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other officials, citing alleged human rights violations during a crackdown on post-election unrest.

The actions taken by Maduro’s government since the July 28 ballot could “constitute crimes against humanity,” the Argentinian Foreign Ministry claimed on Friday. The statement said a request to the court will be submitted on Monday.

According to the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, Maduro won the July presidential election with 52% of the vote. The Western-backed opposition, however, has accused officials in Caracas of rigging the ballot, with rival candidate Edmundo Gonzalez claiming he in fact received 67%.

Protests swept the country after the results were announced. Maduro condemned the unrest as an attempted “coup against Venezuela,” and more than 2,000 demonstrators have since been arrested. Caracas also launched a criminal investigation into opposition figures Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, after they called on the armed forces to drop their support for the president.

In the aftermath of the contested vote, many nations – including Russia and China – congratulated Maduro on his re-election. The US, along with the EU and several other countries including Argentina, have since refused to recognize Maduro as the legitimate president.

The feud has sparked a war of words – with Maduro calling the Argentinian president “monster face” after Javier Milei branded Maduro a dictator and told him to “get out.” Venezuela ordered the closure of Argentina’s diplomatic mission after the election and recalled its own staff from Buenos Aires.

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Weighing on the feud, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rebuked Miley for his apparent reluctance to address issues in his own country.

“Looks like Argentina has no problems of its own, and President Milei has already put all his campaign promises into practice?” she quipped.

Argentina, Latin America’s third largest economy, is in the grip of a severe economic crisis after decades of mounting debt and financial mismanagement. An estimated 55% of Argentina’s population lives below the poverty line, according to the socio-economic watchdog Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina. The figures show that 49.5% were living in poverty when President Milei was sworn into office in December 2023. Argentina’s inflation is one of the highest in the world, exceeding 260% over the last 12 months. The government has devalued the peso by more than 50% as part of the Milei’s “shock therapy” reforms aimed at stabilizing the economy.