Judicialized state-terrorism in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy)  The use of the judicial system to falsely accuse, persecute, imprison, and condemn innocent people is the foundation for all crimes dictators and their criminal minions -organized in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua- commit to terrorize their peoples. This is judicialized State-terrorism, the criminal instrument that 21st Century Socialism or Castrochavism has standardized to violate human rights.

State-Terrorism is “the commission of crimes by the government to instill fear in the population and to promote and achieve behaviors that would otherwise not be possible by themselves.” Crimes that are included in State-terrorism are those aimed to show the people what can happen to them if they challenge the regime, or do not subject themselves to its mandates, these crimes range from falsification, false accusations, torture, extortion, unlawful deprivation of freedom, unlawful confiscations, the rendering of judicial rulings that are contrary to human rights, prevarication, the broadcasting of fake news, the assassination of people’s reputation and more.

Cuba’s dictatorship executes State-terrorism since 1959 and today the 21st Century Socialism -directed by this same dictatorship- replicates it and has “judicialized” it in all dictatorships under its command. It does so by using the servile judicial system, its prosecutors, judges, and courts that the dictatorships have at their service. The judicialization of repression and its institutionalization as a mechanism for State-terrorism is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY according to the legal classification prescribed in the Statute of Rome, paragraph 1, Sub-paragraphs e, f, h, and k.

The Statute of Rome in its Article 7.1 stipulates: “For the purpose of this Statute, «Crime Against Humanity» means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture…; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender…; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”

Dictators and their regimes are structured criminal groups whose crimes, integrated in the judicialized State-terrorism, also fall under the purview of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, also known as the Palermo Convention. As prescribed by the Palermo Convention in its Article 3.2, sub-paragraph d, any State can empower their judicial tribunals and have jurisdiction to rule when a crime is “committed in one State but has substantial effects in another State.”

In Cuba, the spurious legal proceedings against peaceful protesters who since 11 July of 2021 were asking for “homeland and life” and for “food and freedom” are judicialized State-terrorism that, as of today, has 1,057 political prisoners, with despicable sentences of 6, 8, or more years of imprisonment. Using the fear that instills in people, State-terrorism has produced exile as a means of people’s self-preservation and induces and manipulates the exodus as a migratory pressure against democracies. Luis Manuel Otero, Maykel Castillo Pérez AKA Maykel Osorbo, Lizandra Góngora and hundreds more are proof of the existence of judicialized State-terrorism in Cuba with substantial effects throughout the world.

In Venezuela the system is replicated and the situation is similar, with almost 300 political prisoners with and without formal charges, a long list of deaths while in prison, torture, and a system called “revolving door” that describes -at the same time- the releases and new imprisonments. Antonio Ledezma, Lorent Saleh, Luis de la Sotta plus a long list of victims who have fled or who continue in prison, prove the existence of judicialized State-terrorism in Venezuela.

In Bolivia, the system now tries to coverup the existence of judicialized State-terrorism as a “problem of the judicial” and in order to continue masking the existing dictatorship with the façade of being a democracy, they have implemented the fallacy of “judicial reform” in a dictatorship! There are 239 political prisoners either with indefinite detentions or sentences of 10 years or longer, thousands of persecuted and exiled, all victims of judicialized State-terrorism, a system of public and notorious torture and of threats of new trials. Jeanine Añez, former President of Bolivia, Marco Pumari former civic leader of the city of Potosi, Luis Fernando Camacho, the current elected Governor of Santa Cruz, and the sequestered functional opposition are proof of the existence of Judicialized State-terrorism in Bolivia.

Nicaragua is the attestation of the imprisonment of all legitimate leaders of the opposition, presidential candidates, journalists, clergymen, bishops, priests, and ordinary citizens prosecuted and condemned by the judicialized State-terrorism. Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Felix Maradiaga, Arturo Cruz, Cristiana Chamorro, bishop Rolando Álvarez, priest Oscar Danilo Benavidez, are just a few of the many victims.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas