The fight against dictatorships has “fake friends and true enemies”

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) They are real and notorious facts; the regimes from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua commit State-terrorism, crimes against humanity, institutionalized violations of human rights, corruption, and function as narco-States. The objective reality of each and every one of these countries prove they have political prisoners and exiles, politically persecuted and condemned by their dictatorial “justice”. The oppressive culprits hold power indefinitely in a region where “democracy is the right of the peoples” but where the fight against dictatorships has fake friends and true enemies.

The repressive actions of Cuba’s dictatorship since the 11th of July of 2021 (11-J), a date when the people peacefully took out to the streets to ask for freedom, Homeland and Life, are definite proof of State-terrorism. Thousands of imprisoned, hundreds prosecuted and condemned, including minor children, extortions with pressure on the families, lynchings without any legal rights for the accused, counterfeiting of accusations and evidence, and horrendous sentences, are all part of the “roadmap of the crime” (iter-criminis). Nothing new and unusual, only the recurrence of the crimes that go unpunished in Cuba since 1959.

This is the 21st Century Castrochavism’s system that is replicated in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Bolivia. In each and every one of these countries there are political prisoners, persecuted, tortured, innocent people wrongly accused and forced to exile through the falsification of accusations, proof and sentencing, all of this is part of the dictatorial normalcy that generates absolute insecurity and a total sense of helplessness for the people. It is mind-boggling to not have anyone or anything safe when confronted with the omnipotent power of the heads of narco-States.

In Nicaragua, due to impending presidential elections, dictator Ortega imprisoned; first the opposition’s candidates, followed by the social leaders, journalists, and now religious leaders. Nicaragua’s dictatorship has counterfeited facts and proof and has hatched summary trials against those opposers, leaders, and citizens arbitrarily detained, sentencing them from 8 to 13 -and in some cases even longer- years of incarceration. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have been made illegal, religious leaders have been expelled. The list of common crime and crimes against humanity, publicly noted and documented, is unending.

In Bolivia, the electoral fraud perpetrated in October of 2019 that led to Evo Morales’ voluntary resignation, has been counterfeited and is labeled as a coup d’état. They have hatched a narrative that is totally contrary to what has been amply documented by the international press, certified by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU), and publicly confessed by Morales and his accomplices. Through the use of criminal means they changed the dictator’s escape for a “coup d’état” and with the manipulation, similar to Cuba’s 11-J, they have sentenced innocent people to 10 years of jail. All opposers have trials and/or sentences against them and they get to remain free and stay in Bolivia as long as they call this farse a democracy.

In Venezuela, beyond the same practices that have taken innocent people to atrocious sentences, as the 30 years of jail given to suspected authors of an attempt against the life of dictator Maduro, the government is applying a “turnstile” approach with political prisoners, including U.S. citizens. Through this technical-criminal process -applied in Cuba for decades- the regime liberates some prisoners and incarcerates the same number -or a higher number- of others to keep them as signs of terror and tokens of negotiations.

Beyond the expressions of concern, ineffective sanctions, opening of investigations and repeated declarations of solidarity, nothing happens. In Cuba’s case, for over a year, it hasn’t been possible to provide the people internet service defying the dictatorship, the United States has endured the greatest migratory up-surge, greater than Mariel’s. Spaniard and Canadian investments do not appear to decrease, tourism identified as sexual tourism has been reinstated, the human trafficking of slaved physicians has been expanded into Mexico and other countries and the dictatorship alleges to be a victim.

More of the same in Nicaragua, much solidarity but not even Pope Francis defends his harassed, accused and imprisoned curia. The number of prisoners continues to increase, there is total helplessness. As far as Bolivia goes, no one really cares, the crimes of Morales, Arce and their inner circle, have been presented to the people as fallacies of the justice system but remain in effect, the regime has started a new round of false accusations but the regime continues to be accepted as a democracy with 98 political prisoners. In Venezuela’s case, it is even worse with the aggravating circumstances wherein pleadings and proposals increase for dictator Maduro to reopen negotiations in Mexico with a legitimate government that is now only addressed as “the opposition”.

Democratic leaders, governments, and international organizations know this and much more, but “there is neither help, nor real actions” for the peoples from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua who, through civil resistance, continue to peacefully fight against the dictatorships. Meanwhile, all of these dictators are in the “combat” that Cuba’s dictator summoned them to be in, due to the 11-J and conspire throughout the region. Some appear to be fake friends and the others true enemies.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas