The Chilean Senate passed a draft resolution on Tuesday evening calling for far-left President Gabriel Boric to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The 20-point draft resolution calls for the Chilean government to formally request an ICC arrest warrant against the Venezuelan dictator in response to the ongoing political crisis and human rights situation in the country in the aftermath of the sham July 28 presidential election.
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Maduro insists that he was the “winner” of the election despite the continued refusal of the regime-controlled electoral authorities to publish voter data that can corroborate the claimed results. The Venezuelan opposition, in turn, published results from local voting stations nationwide that showed Maduro losing in a landslide. The situation has led to growing international condemnation and chaos in the country.
Maduro has responded to widespread protests with a brutal persecution and repression campaign against dissidents and protesters. At press time, the Maduro regime’s crackdown has resulted in 25 confirmed deaths and the arbitrary detention of more than 2,400 individuals — including more than 120 minors between the ages of 14 and 17.
The ICC presently maintains an open investigation into crimes against humanity by Maduro led by chief prosecutor Karim Khan. That probe is considering evidence from the 2017 wave of protests and was opened after the governments of Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru made a joint request in 2018.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks to supporters during a pro-government rally, in Caracas, Venezuela, on August 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
The Chilean Senate’s resolution, approved with 21 votes in favor and none against, was presented by conservative Senators Felipe Kast of the Political Evolution party and Francisco Chahuán of the National Renewal party. It received the unanimous approval of lawmakers from the Christian Social Party, the Social Green Regionalist Federation, and the Christian Democratic Party.
The Chilean Senate’s resolution urged Khan to bring the Venezuela case before the Pre-Trial Chamber to move forward with the judicial process against Maduro.
Senator Kast expressed his satisfaction for the unanimous vote, asserting that all the necessary documentation, including evidence of torture and persecution committed by the Maduro regime, has already been fulfilled by the ICC’s ongoing investigations. Kast said that this gives the Senate the “moral obligation” to ask Boric to not just recognize opposition candidate Edmundo González as the real winner of the July 28 sham presidential election, but to also request the arrest warrant against Maduro “for all the crimes against humanity that he is being prosecuted for.”
Senado de Chile @Senado_Chile aprueba por unanimidad proyecto de acuerdo para solicitar a la Corte Penal, y específicamente al Fiscal de la Corte Penal Internacional, Sr. Karim A. A. Khan QC, la detención del dictador Nicolás Maduro. @IntlCrimCourt pic.twitter.com/EwwT3loBBW
— Felipe Kast (@felipekast) August 28, 2024
Unlike other leftist regimes in the region such the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia — who have recognized Maduro as the “winner” of the sham election — or the leftist governments of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico — which have refused to take a firm stance against Maduro’s fraudulent victory and repression — the far-left President of Chile Gabriel Boric has openly denounced the dictator’s July 28 “victory” as fraudulent. Boric, who has described himself to be “to the left of” the Chilean Communist Party, is a prominent outlier in Latin American politics.
Boric once again denounced Maduro’s electoral fraud last week after the Venezuelan Supreme Justice Tribunal, loyal to Maduro, ruled to uphold the dictator’s fraudulent “victory.”
Hoy el TSJ de Venezuela termina de consolidar el fraude. El régimen de Maduro obviamente acoge con entusiasmo su sentencia que estará signada por la infamia. No hay duda que estamos frente a una dictadura que falsea elecciones, reprime al que piensa distinto y es indiferente ante…
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) August 22, 2024
“Today, the TSJ of Venezuela finishes consolidating the fraud. The Maduro regime obviously welcomes with enthusiasm its sentence, which will be marked by infamy,” Boric’s message read. “There is no doubt that we are facing a dictatorship that falsifies elections, represses those who think differently and is indifferent to the largest exile in the world only comparable to that of Syria as a result of a war.”
“I have looked into the eyes of thousands of Venezuelans who clamor for democracy in their homeland and who today receive a new slamming of the door,” the message continued. “Chile does not recognize this false self-proclaimed triumph of Maduro and company.”
Boric has maintained a critical stance against Maduro and his human right violations for years. In 2018, Boric, at the time serving as a member of Chile’s Chamber of Deputies, criticized leftists who fail to condemn the authoritarian regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In September 2022, Boric, who took office as President that year, once again condemned leftists who failed to criticize human rights violations by those also identifying as leftists during an event at Columbia University on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
“It really pisses me off when you are from the left, so you condemn the violation of human rights in, I don’t know, Yemen or El Salvador, but you cannot talk about Venezuela or Nicaragua,” Boric said at the time.
Maduro and other members of his regime have responded to Boric’s criticism on several past occasions by accusing him of “working for” the United States against the Venezuelan regime. In 2022, Maduro, without directly mentioning Boric, dared him to sit down to “debate face-to-face” about the “democratic truth” of his authoritarian regime.
“There are those who accuse us of being dictators. I understand that Sebastián Piñera [former president of Chile] does it, I understand that Jair Bolsonaro accuses me, I understand that fascism accuses us,” Maduro said at the time. “But, from the left, whoever tries to accuse us will have to sit face to face with us to debate the truth of Venezuela.”
In early August, Maduro accused Boric of endorsing the alleged training of Venezuelan protesters by “Pinochetist” forces in Chile to overthrow him. The accusations against Boric were part of a broader accusation made by Maduro that “international Zionism” is allegedly plotting to overthrow his socialist regime with the help other regional heads of state such as Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, the former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, and Spain’s populist Vox party. Maduro has not shown any evidence that substantiates any of his accusations at press time.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.