The United States has publicly celebrated the newly installed Venezuelan government’s historic decision to cut all ties with the International Criminal Court (ICC), framing the exit as a key step in a broader American-led campaign to dismantle what Washington calls a biased and illegitimate global judicial body.
In an official statement shared via the social platform X, the U.S. State Department lauded Venezuela’s move as an important milestone for collaborative efforts to undermine the court. The statement specifically called out the ICC’s stalled investigation into former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro—who was removed from power during a U.S.-backed military incursion in January 2026—claiming the probe had yielded no meaningful outcomes.
Instead of advancing accountability, the State Department argued, the ICC has squandered its resources targeting individuals from nations that already maintain functional, independent judicial systems, and that have never formally recognized the court’s jurisdiction. The statement blasted the court’s actions as “blatant overreach, political bias and selective enforcement,” concluding that the institution “is neither credible, independent, nor legitimate.” Echoing the Trump administration’s long-held stance, the statement called for the full dissolution of the ICC, urging all remaining member states to follow Venezuela’s lead and withdraw from the Rome Statute, the founding treaty that established the court.
Venezuela’s exit announcement comes on the heels of a major shakeup at the ICC itself: last Friday, member states voted to remove Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan from office over multiple misconduct allegations. Shortly after that vote, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia confirmed the government had formally notified the United Nations of its “irrevocable” decision to leave the ICC, pointing to the court’s long-documented “geographical bias” against Global South nations as the core justification for the withdrawal.
The move marks a sharp deepening of political alignment between the new Venezuelan government and U.S. foreign policy, arriving just one week after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged a “whole-of-government response to systematically disable” the tribunal. The Trump administration has waged a years-long campaign to erode the ICC’s authority, imposing harsh economic sanctions on ICC prosecutors who launched investigations into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. and Israeli military personnel.
Last year, former President Trump issued an executive order doubling down on this position, claiming the ICC had pursued “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” The order referenced the November 2025 ICC arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, issued over alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip.