CASTROCHAVISM TURNS ARMED FORCES INTO IRREGULAR CRIMINAL GROUPS

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
July 19, 2020

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Regimes who oppress Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua remain in power by the use of force while feigning to be seen as legitimate governments of States whose institutions have been replaced by a criminal system of impunity.  Castrochavism has supplanted the purpose and the loyalty of the Armed Forces and has set the principle of subordination to the Constitutional Civilian Power turning the “Homeland’s Fundamental Institution” into irregular criminal groups who instead of protecting the people, threaten and subject them.

The Armed Forces are an essential part of democracy’s institutions because, within the framework of the “Rule of Law” they have as their mission the defense of sovereignty and national security.  The subordination of the Armed Forces is owed to the constitution and the law, and not to the government, let alone to a regime.  If this purpose is not met, the elimination of the Armed Forces, just as it happened in Costa Rica, will certainly be an option for democracy’s well-being.

Just as Castrochavism’s penetration is based on the destruction of the political system through the demonizing and discrediting of political parties and political leaders, its propaganda system has established the idea of the Armed Forces’ paralysis and inaction when facing abuses to the Constitution and the destruction of democracy.

With the escalation of military dictatorships that occurred in Latin America the past century, Castrochavism has been able to neutralize and annul the Armed Forces’ constitutional duties, has been able to intervene them and destroy their institutions in countries where it has installed its dictatorships.  The destruction of the democratic institutions of the Armed Forces, applying a Castroist/Fascist model of control and manipulation, is fundamental in order to leave the people unprotected and defenseless of democracy and sovereignty.

Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua’s Armed Forces are not national institutions, they are the dictatorial regime’s instruments to maintain -at any cost- those who hold power.  They are devoid of any institutional or legal basis, they are on the fringes of the rule of law, and have been incorporated as active elements of the Transnational Organized Crime that Castrochavism represents.  They are the regime’s unique, yet dangerous, armed groups who usurp the fundamental role of the Nation’s Armed Forces.

In Cuba and Nicaragua, due to the time of Castrochavism’s penetration and the nature of its implementation, it is unlikely, but not impossible that amongst those irregular groups that call themselves Armed Forces, there are honorable military with a sense of their obligation to their homeland and not the regime.   In Venezuela, it is absolutely a sure thing that at intermediate levels with democratic and professional training and background, prior to Castrochavism’s arrival, there are military in the true democratic and professional sense of the concept who are now subjected and controlled by Cuba’s methodology.  Many of the true Venezuelan military are dead, are political prisoners, tortured, and persecuted by the criminal usurpation that occupies their country.

This situation must be cause for alarm and action by democratic governments and the Americas’ democratic military institutions who are harassed and threatened by Castrochavism.  The institutional Armed Forces, those of democracy, the rule of law, -the true ones- are the last bastion of defense of the peoples’ freedoms facing the attack of Transnational Organized Crime who, under the guise of populism, progressiveness, leftist, globalism, anti-imperialism, or other excuse, conspire to destroy the system and install narco-states.

The Armed Forces are prohibited from participating in politics, but this does not preclude them from preventing under the disguise of politics, the destruction of national institutions, the supplanting of the Constitution, the intervention of the country, the end of sovereignty, and the subjection of the peoples to conditions of famine, misery and slavery.  This is the boundary, the breaking point -very clear- that democracy’s military must value and respect the fulfillment of their obligations to defend sovereignty, security of their peoples and homeland, all within the framework of the rule of law.

Venezuela’s factual reality shows the open counterfeiting of the military institutions turning the Armed Forces into irregular criminal groups, integrated into Castrochavism’s system of organized crime.  Under these conditions, Venezuelan military are under the dilemma of either; to remain as part of the criminal group either by commission or omission, or to fulfill their duty to the defense of their homeland, without any excuse or alibi, and under any circumstance and condition.

*Attorney & Political Scientist.  Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Published in Spanish by Infobae.com June 28, 2020

Translated from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators Association, ATA # 234680.