Democracies remain absent in the peoples’ fight against dictatorships

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy)The failed meeting of dictators with Heads of State staged in Buenos Aires within the framework of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC in Spanish), has left it clear that there is an on-going peoples’ fight for freedom, human rights, and the region’s democracy, but it has also highlighted the grievous lack of Latin American democratic governments and leaders who -failing to meet their international obligations- remain absent in the fight of the peoples’ civil resistance against the dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.

Promoted by dictators Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, Daniel Ortega and by Presidents Lula Da Silva, Cristina Kirchner, Michelle Bachelet, Leonel Fernandez, Ollanta Humala and others who signed “The Caracas Declaration”, CELAC is a contrivance created by the 21st Century Socialism or Castrochavism in Caracas, Venezuela on 3 December of 2011. CELAC is not an international organization and defines itself as “a representative mechanism of Latin American and Caribbean States for political dialogue, cooperation, and integration. . .”

CELAC, who excludes the United States and Canada, is Castrochavism’s undertaking used to pursue an open conspiracy against the Organization of American States (OAS). Through meetings that include Heads of States, it attempts to present a political image of dictators identified for wielding power through the use of “State-terrorism” and who are a part of Transnational Organized Crime groups that oppress the peoples from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. It is an operation that highlights the counterfeiting of the narrative.

The seventh iteration of the CELAC Leaders’ Summit, in Buenos Aires, concluded with a declaration “by consensus” to an all-embracing set of 111 proposals and statements and to 11 “special statements” on the situations of particular countries that are absolutely rhetorical and outstripped by reality.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, who is accused of narcotics’ trafficking and for being part of the “Los Soles Cartel” did not attend for fear of being arrested due to the existing international arrest warrant with a $15 million dollar reward against him. Neither did Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s dictator attend who, for somewhat similar reasons, does not leave his country.

Argentina’s people and free press played a fundamental role to block the invitation of Fernandez and Kirchner to dictator Maduro from becoming a reality. A diversity of civic movements and groups of citizens in favor of freedom and victims of dictatorships, demanded the arrest of the fugitive dictator due to narcotics’ trafficking upon his arrival to Argentina’s territory. The opposition’s political leaders joined in, with the outstanding role played by Patricia Bullrich who contacted the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to make Maduro’s capture a reality.

It was this way that the Castrochavist dictators’ narrative with the democratic heads of State was overcome by the factual reality, denounced, and proved by the peoples. Venezuela’s dictator is an internationally sought criminal who does not travel to countries where there is the “Rule of Law” even if -as in Argentina’s case- there is a “Para-Dictatorial” government, because he will be captured.

Nevertheless, the chief of the dictatorial system and Cuba’s dictator, Miguel Diaz-Canel, attended the summit and was given the treatment of a Head of State and the democratic heads of State accepted him as their equal. Others who also attended were; Bolivia’s Dictator-In-Chief Evo Morales and the head of his government Luis Arce who were also treated as a democratic government, ignoring that at the very same time massive town-hall protests and demonstrations throughout Bolivia demanded the liberation of over 200 political prisoners the dictatorship has.

Even though the Presidents of Uruguay and Paraguay pointed out the dictatorships and Chile’s President referred to Nicaragua as a dictatorship, the summit demonstrated the absolute and disgraceful absence of Latin America’s democratic leaders and governments in the defense of freedom, human rights, and democracy that has empowered and protects them. All give them the treatment of Heads of State and come down to the level of co-equal with the dictators and heads of narco-States, blissfully sharing in the meetings and the final document.

None of the 111 “proposals and statements” and 11 “special statements” that came out of the summit makes any mention of the “political prisoners and exiles from the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua” let alone propose something to end that disgrace. There is not ONE official word on the fight of the peoples from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua who are in civil resistance, are persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and forced into exile through the manipulation of the judicial system that turns the regimes’ judges into executioners and legal proceedings into lynchings. There is not ONE note that mentions neither the dictators’ State-terrorism, nor their crimes against humanity, let alone their narco-States. All -bar none- have forgotten the mandate of the Inter American Democratic Charter moreover, international laws.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas