{"id":519752,"date":"2026-03-12T20:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/519752\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T20:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:11:08","slug":"icc-prosecutor-clears-u-s-in-sanctions-against-venezuela-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/519752\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC prosecutor clears U.S. in sanctions against Venezuela case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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<\/p>\n<p>March 12 (UPI) &#8212; 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.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation, called Venezuela II by the court, was referred to the court by Venezuela&#8217;s government in 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/news\/icc-office-prosecutor-concludes-preliminary-examinations-venezuela-ii-and-lithuania\/belarus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">alleging that sanctions<\/a> against the country had caused suffering and hardship.\n<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/sites\/default\/files\/itemsDocuments\/200212-venezuela-referral.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">referral<\/a> from now-deposed President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Nicolas_Maduro\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Nicolas Maduro\" class=\"tpstyle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nicolas Maduro<\/a> alleges the suffering of Venezuelans from &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela alleged that &#8220;murder, extermination, deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts constituting crimes against humanity&#8221; were committed, the OTP said.<\/p>\n<p>The ICC prosecutor determined that the &#8220;evidential requirements of causation and intent are not met.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The evidence &#8220;must provide a reasonable basis to believe that sanctions by the United States of America led to murder, displacement or other alleged crimes,&#8221; the OTP said.<\/p>\n<p>The decision is unrelated to the January 2026 events in Venezuela, the prosecutor noted.<\/p>\n<p>In January, the United States <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/World-News\/2026\/01\/05\/cuba-32-Cubans-killed-Venezuela\/8821767595915\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">invaded Venezuela<\/a>, arrested Maduro and his wife and took them to Manhattan, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/World-News\/2026\/01\/05\/Venezuela-installs-new-president\/5331767606248\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">they await trial<\/a> on drug trafficking charges.\n<\/p>\n<p>The ICC prosecutor said it is still investigating &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/venezuela-i\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Venezuela I<\/a>,&#8221; a case that doesn&#8217;t involve the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Maduro-supporters-rally-as-Venezuela-names-interim-president_1_1.jpg\" style=\"width: 100%;\" width=\"644\" height=\"431\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t Supporters of ousted Venezuela&#8217;s President Nicolas Maduro carry his portrait during a rally outside the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 5, 2026. Photo by Jonathan Lanza\/UPI | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/News_Photos\/lp\/d80ad1491da8b53d4af08d641935ef96\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">License Photo<\/a>\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, has cleared the United States of crimes against humanity&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,21973,3,18231,13594,21,19,22,20,25,24,4477],"class_list":["post-519752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-law-and-crime","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-top-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}