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This next story is quite interesting. In December of last year, December of 2025, you had the Venezuelan national assembly vote to withdraw the country of Venezuela from the Rome Statute. Now, the Rome Statute is the international treaty which established the International Criminal Court. And so essentially by repealing the federal law which ratified the Rome Statute within Venezuela, the Venezuelan national assembly, their version of our Congress, was taking the first step to withdraw from the UN's International Criminal Court, otherwise known as the ICC. However, if you recall, a month later, a lot of government business within Venezuela hit a bit of a snag and got delayed when in January the US military came in and captured Nicolas Maduro, the then President of Venezuela. After he was flown out of the country, his vice president, a woman named Delsey Rodriguez, stepped in to replace him as the interim President of Venezuela, a position that she's still holding to this day. She was only supposed to hold it until July 3, but because of those massive earthquakes that struck Venezuela and killed over 5,000 people about a month ago, the elections have been delayed. And so Ms. Rodriguez, she remains as the current acting President and as president. Just earlier this week, Ms. Rodriguez began the formal process of withdrawing Venezuela from the icc, saying this as a part of her statement in terms of the why the International Criminal Court has been so heavily politicized to attack the Venezuelan people and the Venezuelan State that we do not believe in that type of organization or institution. And then delving a bit deeper and more specifically into their rationale in you had Ms. Rodriguez's foreign minister release this statement following the official formal notification of withdrawal. Quote Venezuela considers that the Court's actions reflect a demonstrated geographical bias which has disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries to the detriment of the Global South. This pattern reveals an international justice system that far from being applied equitably to, has been instrumentalized to deepen inequalities among peoples and disregard their right to self determination and sovereignty. Now that is of course a very blanket statement on what the ICC was up to in the general Global South. But as it relates specifically to the country of Venezuela, here's what the ICC was up to prior to the Venezuelan government's decision to vote on exiting the treaty. Quote the International Criminal Court recently completed a multi year investigation into members of Venezuela's armed forces and other officials for alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela. The Court began an investigation of Venezuela in 2020 when it said that there was reasonable basis to believe that civilian officials, members of the armed forces and pro regime individuals had committed crimes against humanity since at least 2017. In January of 2025, the International Criminal Court closed its office in Caracas, citing a lack of cooperation from the Venezuelan regime, the then led by Maduro. And so essentially the ICC was investigating high ranking officials within the Venezuelan state. And then shortly afterwards, the vote was cast from the Venezuelan equivalent to our Congress to leave the icc. Logically, if you think about it, it all makes sense. However, if this is all you know about the story, if you're not familiar with the ICC in general, then you might actually be surprised to learn that the US praised this move by Venezuela on the very same day that Ms. Rodriguez made her announcement to withdraw. You have President Trump issue a statement praising her leadership, saying this to reporters in the White House.
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As far as the elections in Venezuela, they're not really ready for them yet, but boy, a lot of progress has been made.
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Delsey has been doing a fantastic job because you see, the US happens to be among the minority of countries around the world that never ratified the Rome Statute and therefore have never been a part of the International Criminal Court. And furthermore, besides just not being a part of the court, the US has actually launched a campaign to quote, dismantle the threat posed by the International criminal court to U.S. sovereignty. And to this end, after Venezuela made their announcement, the US State Department released a statement of their own which not only praised the move, but but it also framed the move as just one component of a broader American led effort. Here's what that State Department cable said, quote, the United States welcomes the new Venezuelan government's partnership on American led efforts to dismantle the corrupt and worthless icc. And then in a real twist of irony, this statement from the State Department, it then goes on to give the example of the fact that the ICC had been investigating Nicolas Maduro for the past eight years with no results to show for it. Which is actually a really funny part of the statement that came out of the us because the US is using the example of how toothless and ineffective the ICC was because they investigated Maduro for eight years and nothing came of it. Therefore the organization is worthless. However, in Venezuela's statement, they used the fact that the ICC was investigating Maduro as an example of the ICC's overreach and how they were using these investigations to attack the sovereignty of Venezuela. The two countries are basically both giving this one fact as an example, but giving exact opposite reasons for why it's an example of why the ICC is a worthless organization in their view. All right, just to pause here for A super quick moment. I'd like to introduce today's sponsor and my own personal skincare routine product, Particle Face Cream. It's a six in one anti aging solution made specifically for men. It's made with high grade ingredients that basically combines six effects into one formula. It gets rid of the bags underneath the eyes, it removes dark spots, it reduces wrinkles, soothes out skin. After shaving, it moisturizes the skin and then also it nourishes the skin with minerals from the Dead Sea. It also smells good, it's easy to apply, and also, most importantly to me, it's not greasy. And so if you use it at night and then you go to sleep, your pillow is not going to become a soggy mess. And so yeah, if you want your face to feel smooth, fresh and hydrated without the greasy residue, check out Particle. They're actually offering our viewers a discount to give them a try. You can use promo code Roman20 to save 20% off of everything over on their website. And so join the million plus men worldwide, including myself, who use Particle and check them out their promo code as well as the links to their website. It'll all be down in the description box below. Click on that link, see what they're offering to save 20% off of everything. The team at Particle, thank you so much for sponsoring the episode and now back to the video. Now a great question to ask at this point in the story is why why exactly is the US Leading an entire international campaign to dismantle the icc? Or as Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said, quote, dismantle the International Criminal Court brick by brick if necessary. Now, the ICC as a whole is an organization operating out of the Hague in the Netherlands. Its stated mission is to investigate and to prosecute individuals who are charged with grave crimes, things like war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, things like that. They especially are supposed to focus on countries that don't have their own solid system of jurisprudence and justice. And so they are basically the backstop for any kind of justice in those countries. However, the State Department believes that the ICC has veered far from its original course over the last 20 plus years of its operation. In laying out their argument here was Marco Rubio in an official statement released just two weeks ago on the State
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Department YouTube page, the ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country. Not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts and the force of so called international law. When the ICC was born 24 years ago, they told us that it was merely a narrow backstop a global court that would step in to prosecute only the gravest offenses, things like genocide and war crimes, and only when a nation's courts were unable to prosecute them on their own. But the truth is, it was something far more radical and extreme. It was a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited.
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Rubio then says that this unlimited power could mean the death of the US as a sovereign and independent nation. And let's examine exactly why he might be making that statement. First off, the US never ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the icc, meaning that the US doesn't actually recognize the court's jurisdiction. But still, the ICC does claim jurisdiction over Americans if they happen to be accused of committing a crime. And in an ICC member state, which becomes a very pertinent issue when you remember the fact that the US maintains a military presence in upwards of 80 different countries around the globe. And so there is the inherent risk of politically motivated prosecutions. Also, a foreign adversary could at least potentially weaponize the ICC to hamper American foreign policy or even our counterterrorism operations by basically holding accountable the individual people who are implementing those policies on the ground. Which is exactly why not only did the US not become a treaty member, but also in 2002, Congress passed something called the American Service Members Protection Act. And among the provisions in that law, it placed a blanket ban on any US Government entity from assisting the icc. Which means that no federal, state and or local courts, law enforcement agencies, or any other agencies can work with the icc. This includes prohibitions on extraditing people from America to the Hague, no sharing of classified national security and or intelligence data with the court, as well as not allowing any ICC agents to conduct investigations on American soil. And it's actually exactly this law which prevented New York City Mayor Zora Mamdani from being able to extradite Benjamin Netanyahu if and when he comes to New York. You see, Benjamin Netanyahu has an open arrest warrant from the ICC for war crimes. And Mamdani has been publicly mulling arresting him in September when he's supposed to be visiting New York for the UN General Assembly. But then, after considering all the relevant legal ramifications, Mamdani posted the following video on social media, basically saying that he cannot do it. My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. However, the American Service Members Protection act does not completely block American involvement in ICC business. Under a specific waiver that you can get through the law, the US can assist the ICC in hunting down foreign nationals accused of war crimes if the US President deems it of national interest. A recent example of American support for the ICC actually came in 2023 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Shortly afterwards, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the American Congress issued a waiver in order to allow our intelligence agencies to share some classified evidence of Russian war crimes with the ICC prosecutor. Also, if you rewind the clock over 20 years back in 2005, you had the George W. Bush administration choose not to veto a UN Security Council resolution that referred certain atrocities in Sudan over to the icc. And then later, the Bush administration actually supported the arrest and the transfer of Sudanese rebel leaders to the ICC court in that case. And so this has basically led supporters of the ICC to say that this type of selective cooperation from the US is a double standard because the US appears to support the ICC and its investigations of its adversaries and. But we just don't want those standards applied to ourselves or to our allies. Now, of course, Marco Rubio frames the battle against the ICC as one between sovereign states versus globalism. But on the flip side, a UN spokesperson speaking on the matter, he pointed it out that it was the collection of sovereign states that got together and themselves created the ICC's laws. Take a listen.
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International law. The, the Charter of the United nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were created by sovereign member states and they have brought protection, they have brought relief to millions of people. And they are, as the Secretary General has often said, under threat and under attack.
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Furthermore, you have other supporters of the ICC say that ever since the Nuremberg trials, it's been collectively understood that state sovereignty, I guess you can say, has its limits. Meaning essentially that a government's sovereignty does not granted the absolute immunity to commit and or cover up things like genocide, war crimes and, or crimes against humanity. And within that framework, a global court is necessary to prevent a return to an era where powerful nations could commit atrocities with total immunity. Take a listen.
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In the Wall Street Journal editorial by Marco Rubio, he said, or he wrote that he framed it as sovereign states over globalism and called international law a self appointed priesthood. Does the Secretary General accept that characterization of the system? The UN Charter is built on international law. The Charter of the United nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, were created by sovereign member states and they have brought protection, they have brought relief to millions of people. And they are, as the Secretary General has often said, under threat and under attack.
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And so that's the argument from the other side. I'll let you decide which one you think is overall correct. However, I will leave you with Marco Rubio's closing remarks from his recent video, which act as a bit of a rebuttal to those UN spokespeople the American
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people never agreed to any of this, and they never will read the words of our declaration of we fought a revolution against a foreign power transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. Independence is our birthright. We will never let foreign bureaucrats take that away from us. This administration will not sit by as the ICC and its allies seek to threaten our people. If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will teach them the full meaning of American resolve.
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And so there you have it. If you'd like to read any of the research notes from today's episode, I'll throw the links to them. You'll be able to find them down in the description box below. Regarding both Venezuela as well as more broadly the ongoing feud between the ICC and the US all those links will be down there in the description box below. And all I ask in return are just two things. Very simple. Firstly, please do smash those like and subscribe buttons so this video can reach ever more people via the algorithm. Thank you so much for that. And secondly, on a totally unrelated topic, I'd like to give you a cool update, and I'd like to frame it this way. 2,400 years ago, there was a Greek physician who is believed to have said the following. Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food. Wise words. But you fast forward 2400 years to the present day, and we're kind of in a unique position. Food is now cheap, it's abundant, it's readily available, and it's calorically dense. But at the same time, it's been stripped of its nutrients. It seems like the more you eat, the worse off you become. Not only in terms of junk food, but even the produce on the shelves has markedly lower nutrient counts than before. Most farmers, they can't even grow their crops anymore without adding chemicals to the soil, and chemicals which then in turn wind up on our plates. However, there's a new movement of farmers that's fighting back against this trend. They're ditching modern chemicals and they're returning to nature. Basically, I guess you can say they're making heirloom food. Food like it was 100 years ago, both in terms of the quality, but also very specifically in terms of the soil that the food is coming out of. There's a great new documentary that we published over on EpicTV about this movement about the American farmers who are bringing life back to the soil. They're healing the soil and producing real, nutritious, healthy food once again using techniques called regenerative agriculture techniques. And I would highly recommend this film, it's called Heal the Dirt, because it's really an optimistic film. It offers an actual solution to the problem, an actual path forward for all of us to take to make ourselves and our families healthy again. And so if you live in America and if you buy food in our country, I would highly recommend that you watch this film because it'll give you a good framework to use, as well as the specific knowledge of where in your local community you can go to to find the most nutritious food. Not just like a carrot or a tomato, but the right carrot and the right tomato grown in the right way and not. Not even the carrots and tomatoes. Also the dairy products as well as the meat that really have the nutrients of the food from a century ago. It's a great film and I would highly recommend it. You can check it out by clicking on the button, the link at the top of the description box below. You just click on that link, it'll take you over to EpicTV where you can watch Heal the Dirt right away. The modern world is making us sick. There's no such thing as diseases. They're all consequences. So what is wrong with the food that most Americans are eating?
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We've got to learn how to be biologists, because everything we're doing out here is affecting the biology of the soil and the biology of our gut. To me, regenerative organic agriculture is the
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way back to a healthier farm. And the idea of regenerative agriculture is that healthy soil makes healthy plants, which makes healthy people healthy meat. And it's a whole certain, and that
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was my aha moment that, hey, there's a better way of doing this. It's a completely new way of thinking. Our health is directly related to our food.
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I do believe doctors of the future will prescribe food as medicine. So let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. The two really go together. The impact on our health was pretty significant. You can't have one without the other. You can't have human health without soil health. It's just a relationship that's undeniable at
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this point, the answer is, why didn't I do this 10 years ago?
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And then. Until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the epoch times. Stay informed and most importantly, stay free.