The International Criminal Court said Tuesday it was reopening an investigation into alleged rights abuses during 2017 demonstrations in Venezuela after finding a domestic probe by Caracas had fallen short.
Caracas asked the Hague-based court to halt its investigation last year while the government carried out its inquiry into a crackdown on protests against President Nicolas Maduro in which over 100 people died.
But ICC judges authorised prosecutor Karim Khan to resume the probe because it "appears that Venezuela is not investigating the factual allegations... of crimes against humanity", the ICC said in a statement.
Venezuela's domestic probe was focusing on "lower level perpetrators" rather than on higher officials and was failing to investigate alleged sexual crimes and persecution on ethnic or racial grounds, it said.
"Venezuela appears to have taken limited investigative steps and... there appear to be periods of unexplained investigative inactivity," judges added.
The probe is focused on a crackdown by security forces during protests sparked by the arrests of several opposition leaders and the supreme court's decision to dissolve the opposition-dominated National Assembly.
Five South American countries and Canada referred the situation in Venezuela to the ICC in 2018, and the court launched a preliminary investigation.
Prosecutor Khan began a formal investigation in November 2021, signing a deal with Maduro saying Venezuela would ensure the court could work properly there.
Then in April 2022, Venezuela said it would launch its own inquiries and asked the court to suspend the probe, as it is entitled to do under the ICC's rules.
But Khan asked the court last November to resume the investigation.
Since 2017, more than 200 members of the police and military have been charged or sentenced for human rights violations, Caracas said in April last year.
The opposition claims those actions were taken merely to avoid an ICC investigation.
