So that men will not be compelled towards the supreme recourse of rebellion against tyranny and oppression

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims “fundamental for human rights to be protected by a legal system in order for men not to be compelled towards the supreme recourse of rebellion against tyranny and oppression”. Both the national and international system are based on the respect for human rights but 21st century’s dictatorships violate these with prisoners, victims of torture, persecution and exiles. Today, Nicaragua’s dictatorship repeats the crimes committed in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia where oppressors hold power with total impunity. The peoples of the Americas, who are in a situation of defenselessness, are being forced towards the use of the supreme recourse of rebellion.

“Respect for human rights and individual basic freedoms” is the first essential component of democracy instituted in the Interamerican Democratic Charter, the preferential application law in countries throughout the Americas. “Access to power and the discharge of duties subject to the rule of law” along with the existence of “a regime of plurality of political parties and organizations” enable “elections to be periodic, free, fair, and be conducted based upon universal suffrage concepts and be secret as an expression of the people’s sovereignty”.

The “rule of law” is the subjection to and compliance with the law, the principle by which “all people, institutions, and public as well as private organizations -including the State- are subjected to laws that are publicly promulgated, are equally enforced, and are applied with independence, laws that must be compatible with international human rights’ standards and principles”. This ensures the “predominance and equality before the law, the separation of the branches of government, the social participation in the decision making, the legality -not arbitrariness- and the procedural transparency and legality”.

The existence of human rights, individual basic freedoms, and the rule of law guarantee that each person will enjoy freedom, justice, and peace with dignity and within a framework of equality of rights and obligations.

Factual reality reveals that in the 21st century there are “two Americas”, the one that is democratic and the other that is dictatorial. The current axis of confrontation is dictatorship against democracy. The dictatorship from Cuba, that was agonizing and was the only one back in 1999, has expanded turning the 20th Century Castroism into the 21st Century Castrochavism due to its association with Hugo Chavez who enabled it to be salvaged from its collapse and then impose its dictatorial model in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador.

Simulating to be democratic is typical of 21st century socialism’s dictatorships. The conduct elections, referendums, consultations, plebiscites, and all kinds of occasions for voting under their control, counterfeiting, and fraud in order to win. They have institutionalized “systemic fraud” through changes in the legal system and their contempt of universal suffrage concepts based on the equality of all voters and through the introduction of manipulation of voters’ registries and the “factual fraud” they commit during elections, the vote-counting process, the tabulation and the chain of custody of ballot boxes. These are “vote-catching dictatorships” in which people “vote but do not elect”.

The “elimination of opposing political leaders and candidates” and the creation of a “functional opposition” are essential for Castrochavist dictatorships. You only need to see what has happened, this century, in Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and now Nicaragua to make evident the institutionalization of “judicialized political persecution” in order to politically, physically, and economically eliminate all democratic leaders through false accusations, and through the creation and application of specific and retroactive despicable laws (violating human rights) through the regime’s prosecutors and judges who are executioners and participate in campaigns to assassinate the reputation of opposers, to imprison and exile them.

The Castrochavist dictatorial system is based on threats, fear, terror. They install a total subordination system that includes a “functional opposition” constrained by the boundaries set by the dictatorship and the system is responsible to legitimize the violations of human rights, the absence of the rule of law, the electoral fraud, and all crimes committed by the holders of power who remain unpunished. The functional opposition is a hostage of the dictatorship because it always has some accusation or looming legal process and threatens opposition members the likelihood of following in the steps of those who already are in prison, exiled, or are no longer alive.

Under these conditions, the situation of defenselessness, and without objective results in the international system, people are remembering that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights considers rebellion as the people’s supreme recourse against tyranny and oppression.

*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.