It urges us to put an end to the double standard of sanctions against dictatorships

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The argument the dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua use to coverup the violations of human rights they commit with State-sponsored terrorism, their economic failure, the social oppression, and the misery they have caused to their peoples, are the so-called sanctions or blockades. At the same time, however, for democracy’s banners and democratic leaders fighting against dictatorships, a close look to reality reveals these sanctions are ineffective and are applied with a double standard that we must put an end to and replace with true sanctions that disable and end dictatorships.

A sanction is supposed to be a disabling punishment that is imposed in order to modify, change, or end inappropriate behavior. Sanctions have the objective of changing a negative situation, or to modify or end it. In the particular case of why these are imposed by democratic governments or States against dictatorships, is for that very reason.

The famous embargo or blockade with which Cuba’s dictatorship attempts to justify the misery it caused to its peoples and the oppression with State-sponsored terrorism that it applies against its citizens, is framed in a set of United States’ legal dispositions that started on 19 October of 1960 when President Eisenhower imposed what was then called a “partial embargo” and led to the breaking of relations on 3 January of 1961. Much of this modified by President Obama and afterwards by President Trump.

The embargo, blockade, or sanctions imposed, pursue the same objective that is the modification or ending of anti-democratic behaviors. The difference between “blockade and embargo rests on the fact that the first does not exclude the use of force against seaborne traffic and the latter does not consider such recourse”. Today, the blockade is practically non-existent.

Since Cuba’s dictatorship has expanded in the 21st century and under the banner of 21st Century Socialism -or Castrochavism- has established and controls the dictatorships from Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, all of them set in the same model of violation of human rights and State-sponsored terrorism, sanctions from democracies such as the United States and the European Union have been replicated against those regimes.

Beyond the fact that in dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua there are political prisoners and exiles, the rule of law has been destroyed, there is no separation and independence of the branches of government, these dictatorships have also turned their countries into narco-States, they have rejected international agreements for the fight against narcotics’ trafficking, have expelled the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), they protect narcotics’ traffickers, and are actively engaged in criminal activities that have resulted in specific sanctions in this area.

The sanctions, so highly publicized by those who impose them as well as so highly publicized by the whimpers and grievances of those who receive them, have not changed the dictatorships’ behaviors, nor that of their leaders, they have not decreased the level of violations of human rights, nor have they modified the condition of narco-States, and least of all, they have not accomplished the peoples’ liberation with transitions from dictatorships to democracy. There are many sanctions, but dictatorships continue and there are increasing numbers of dictators with unlimited usufruct of power and impunity.

A close look to the objective reality shows that beyond the so-called sanctions, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have continued and still continue to buy from countries and factories of countries who “sanction” them. They buy all types of commodities that include war materials and riot-control materials with which they repress their people who ask for freedom and with which they stay in power, preserving their impunity.

Dictatorships continue being eligible and qualified credit subjects at international organizations, their so-called private financial systems always linked to “friends of the regime” continue to be intact, allowing them to move their resources from corruption and crime.

There is no way that any sanction, in spite of its good intentions or disposition, will have any effect on dictatorships, nor that it will achieve any modification of behavior and least of all that those dictatorships will end, as long as commercial relations remain intact, credits continue to be available, dictatorships continue to be qualified credit subjects, and the international system continues limiting itself to making statements and declarations or protests without any real effect. This is where the “double standard” is; to sanction without consequences, and to trade without penalties.

A bit of data, amongst many, that illustrates the double standard of sanctions against dictatorships is the recent news that in 2020 Spain exported to Cuba’s dictatorship one million three hundred thousand dollars’ worth of military material and “350,000 Euros’ worth of riot-control material during the first semester of 2021, close to the explosion of the social unrest of 11J”. And there are lots more.

*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.