Lack of opposition’s unity is the strength of castrochavism

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The concept “divide et impera”, divide and conquer, used by Julius Cesar and Napoleon seems to be working for Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia’s dictatorships facing the massive rejection of their peoples. Twenty-first Century Socialism or Castrochavism’s regimes hold power with impunity over the popular rejection, the worsening of the crises they have caused, the narco-states they have implemented and manage, and the regional conspiracies they promote. Members of the opposition have shown not to fully understand that their task is to recover democracy and their lack of unity has become the dictatorships’ main strength.

To prevent unity among opponents seeking a common objective is an old, yet effective strategic concept summarized in the famous Latin saying “divide et impera” and other off shoots such as; “divide el vinces” (divide and you will win), “divide ut imperes” (divide and you will dictate) and “divide ut regnes” (divide and you will govern). The common core of these words is to divide, meaning; to split, to separate, to “break apart intentions and wills by introducing disagreement”. This has scientific application in the algorithm “divide and you will win” (DYV in Spanish) which simply means “dividing a problem into smaller and more manageable parts, as many times as this may be necessary.”

None of the dictatorships can resist a united opposition and all the great victories for freedom have shown this. What Gandhi accomplished with his leadership and resistance movement was to unite his whole nation and with a pacifist force defeated an empire. What Mandela sought and accomplished was to unite all black people and defeated a racist regime of racial discrimination or apartheid. From the time of the morals of Esopo’s fable “The Old Man and His Sons” all the way to the conquest of space, it has been amply demonstrated that “unity forges strength” the national creed for Belgium, Bolivia, and Bulgary.

Unity of the opposition is a must in order to restore freedom and democracy, ending Castrochavist dictatorships, it is a single objective, a national undertaking, a vital need, fundamental for the rescue of captive nations. Without such unity, organized crime will continue to prevail over human rights. This is neither about ideological objectives, nor about partisan political objectives, and least of all is not an undertaking for the purpose of dolling quotes or slices of the power. This is not an undertaking to coexist with the regime but to defeat it, remove it from power, and restore democracy.

This is a temporary and urgent undertaking to regain the conditions of normality in the lives of the people and the organization of society. First, democracy and the republic must be recovered in each of the countries under a dictatorship and then the natural ideological and pragmatic confrontation will comeback, something possible only with freedom. To pursue ideological, programmatic, personal or economic confrontation to the phase in which the dictatorship must be defeated, besides being a fatal strategic error is -because of its persistence- an act of treason, it is to be part of the regime.

In Venezuela, the Table for Democratic Unity (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática “MUD” in Spanish) created on 23 January of 2008 in Caracas that in practical terms had already existed since 2006, started as an extraordinary example of the creation of the instrument to end the dictatorship, then became the “G4” comprised by Democratic Action (Accion Democratica), Justice First (Primero Justicia), A New Time (Un Nuevo Tiempo), and Popular Will (Voluntad Popular). The “statute for the transition towards democracy” approved as law on 5 February of 2019 is, perhaps, the instrument that certifies the lack of unity that prevents the ending of the dictatorship in Venezuela by subordinating “the conformation of a provisional national unity government” to the end of the usurpation, when this should have been exactly the opposite.

In Bolivia, the people through civil resistance accomplished Evo Morales’ resignation on 10 November of 2019, a government that should have been a transitional government was installed and it turned out to be a government of continuity of the dictatorial system, corruption included. “The dictator was ousted but not the dictatorship” and the interim government and the opposition kept intact the infrastructure and kept up the farce to the point of calling for “elections under dictatorship” and were accomplices of a gargantuan electoral fraud this past 18th of October. Today, the opposition –that never united against the dictatorship- continues to be divided and accepts to continue using the regime’s counterfeited voters’ registry in upcoming elections for Mayors and Governors.

Following the protests of April 2018 and the criminal repression of Daniel Ortega and his regime, Nicaragua urgently needs the opposition’s unity something that appears as difficult in spite of the risk of repeating Venezuela and Bolivia’s failures.

Perhaps the mistake we are making is that we are calling “opposition” to political parties and groups that have already decided and are part of the dictatorial scheme and partake of the corrupt and disgraceful system, all while simulating to be “opposition”.

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

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