In Tanzania and Venezuela, the continued presence in power of individuals linked to repressive apparatuses, now turned heads of state, places both countries at a historical crossroads: either structural impunity is reinforced, or a genuine process of responsibility in favour of victims is set in motion. The arrival of women to the highest offices of the executive branch is an unequivocal sign of democratic progress and institutional maturation. However, in exceptional cases this narrative becomes profoundly problematic when their political careers have been forged at the apex of regimes identified as responsible for crimes against humanity and systematic patterns of state repression.
Such is the case of the parallel trajectories of Samia Suluhu Hassan in Tanzania and Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela: both have moved from the vice‑presidency of governments denounced for the commission of serious human rights violations to exercising the headship of state, without any genuine process of accountability and without effective mechanisms of transitional justice, least of all at the international level. This article argues that these political itineraries exemplify a structural pattern of a “pipeline from complicity to impunity”, in which the summit of executive power becomes a refuge from international criminal responsibility. At the same time, it contends that the very legitimacy of democracy as a human right is eroded when those who inherit power from perpetrator regimes do so under the cloak of institutional continuity, but without assuming the obligations to investigate, prosecute and punish the most egregious crimes.
During the presidency of John Pombe Magufuli (2015-2021) Tanzania experienced an accelerated deterioration of fundamental freedoms and a sustained pattern of serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, mass arbitrary detentions, persecution of political opponents, harassment of human rights defenders, journalists and LGBTIQ+ persons, as well as severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association. Samia Suluhu Hassan served as vice-president throughout this period, forming part of the hard core of power, with direct access to decision‑making and institutional knowledge of the conduct of the state security apparatus and its criminal structure. After Magufuli’s death in 2021, Hassan assumed the presidency by operation of the constitutional line of succession.
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Although in her initial speeches she deployed reformist rhetoric, the factual reality of the country has shown an absence of effective mechanisms of accountability for the crimes of the previous period. No independent truth commissions have been established, no credible criminal investigations have been opened into extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, and no effective reparation has been ensured for victims. The drift has worsened during the exercise of her presidential mandate and particularly during the2025 electoral cycle, in which she was elected president amid multiple challenges and bloodshed.
Various reports by human rights organisations and electoral observer missions have documented new atrocities committed by security forces during the most recent elections, including excessive lethal use of force against demonstrators, mass arrests of opponents, cases of torture and enforced disappearances in key regions of the country. As head of state and commander‑in‑chief during that cycle, Hassan stands at the centre of allegations of crimes against humanity relating to the electoral repression at the end of 2025, insofar as these acts form part of a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population and she has acted with knowledge of that attack. In this context, in my capacity as a member of the Bar of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and together with the Human Rights Section of the Madrid Bar Association (ICAM) and the Human Rights Institute of the World Jurist Association, we have submitted a formal communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC specifically directed against Hassan for her alleged responsibility in the commission and tolerance of crimes against humanity during the 2025 electoral process, as well as for the continued impunity for violations committed under Magufuli’s regime.
This communication sets out and evidences the pattern of abuses, the command structure involved, the lack of genuine domestic investigations and the need to activate the ICC’s jurisdiction in view of the manifest lack of state willingness to prosecute those responsible. In parallel, Venezuela offers a paradigmatic case of power consolidation in contexts of state criminality. The regime headed byNicolás Madurohas been the subject of multiple reports by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Independent International Fact‑Finding Mission on Venezuela and prominent international organisations, documenting extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and systematic persecution of opponents, human rights defenders and journalists, amounting to crimes against humanity.
Likewise, since 2015 we have submitted multiple communications to the ICC, substantiating the perpetration of crimes against humanity by the Maduro regime and its acolytes. Rodríguez served as executive vice‑president of Venezuela, situated at the apex of the power apparatus, with responsibilities in political, economic and security coordination, and for years she held the highest hierarchical position over the civilian intelligence police (Sebin), forming part of Maduro’s inner circle of trust. In that role, she not only failed to distance herself from the regime’s repressive policy, but also supported it discursively and institutionally, participating in the public justification of repression and in the disparagement of victims and human rights organisations. This once again raises the issue of her responsibility, both for direct participation in the implementation of repressive policies and on the basis of command responsibility with respect to security agencies and para‑police structures.
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