On September 14, 2017, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, appointed 3 independent experts to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed by the Venezuelan socialist government. The panel is made up of Irwin Cotler, Manuel Ventura Robles and Santiago Cantón, who were later joined by Luis Moreno Ocampo. The final report of this investigation was published yesterday and concluded that there are sufficient elements to denounce Nicolás Maduro and other government officials implicated in crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.

The investigation showed that between the protests of 2014 and 2017, there have been 131 homicides attributable to both police bodies and paramilitaries loyal to the government called "colectivos". It also adds that 8292 extrajudicial executions have been identified, 289 allegations of torture, 192 cases of sexual violence against men and women, 1,300 political prisoners, more than 12,000 arbitrary detentions and also documents how the government uses the crisis as a mechanism of pressure.

The only parties entitled to submit a case to the International Criminal Court are the States Parties, the UN Security Council and the Court Prosecutor's Office. The OAS does not have jurisdiction to file complaints with the International Criminal Court, but the countries do. Of the 35 countries that are part of the OAS, 28 have signed the Rome Statute, including Venezuela. Colombia is one of those States party and Iván Duque, presidential candidate of that country, affirmed that it denounced the president of Venezuela before the International Criminal Court, however, On February 8 of this year, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, announced that they would officially open a preliminary examination which means that there is already a procedure in progress.

The procedure before the International Criminal Court consists of 3 phases. The first is the preliminary examination, at this stage issues such as jurisdiction and admissibility of the application will be analyzed. If they conclude that they meet the requirements and there are merits to proceed, the prosecution initiates an investigation, which is already the second stage of the process. If the investigation determines that in fact crimes against humanity have been committed, the prosecution must exercise the formal accusation and may even request the arrest of the accused to be submitted to trial, which would be the third stage of the procedure.