In late 2017 de Zayas visited Venezuela. For the report, he interviewed 12 Venezuelan government ministers, opposition politicians, 35 NGOs working in the country, academics, church officials, activists, chambers of commerce and regional UN agencies. In a February 2018 interview with Telesur, de Zayas, said “I’ve compared the statistics of Venezuela with those of other countries and there’s no humanitarian crisis”. He said that Venezuela’s economic problems were caused by the "economic war" and "economic sanctions placed by the U.S., Canada and the European Union". De Zayas’ report, published in August 2018, found internal overdependence on oil, poor governance and corruption had damaged the Venezuelan economy, but that “economic warfare” practised by the US, EU and Canada were major factors in the crisis. He recommended economic sanctions be investigated by the International Criminal Court as possible crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.