Private property is a human right and an essential component of democracy

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Private property is a universal, obligatory human right in the Americas but is under attack, violated, and denigrated by 21st Century Socialism’s dictatorships who have turned the discrediting and destruction of private property into the axis of confrontation for the insurgency and violence with which they take and wield power that -in turn- produces misery and dependence. No one is able to have the human right to; life, freedom, and security, without property, something that is also an essential component of democracy.Human rights are defined as “the set of prerogatives sustained in human dignity, whose effective attainment becomes indispensable for the comprehensive development of the person.” Human rights are inherent to all human beings, without any distinction and discrimination.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) in its Article 3 states: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” And in its Article 17 establishes: “1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.” Human Rights are “interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible.”

In the Americas, the American Convention on Human Rights, or The Pact of San Jose Costa Rica of 22 November 1969, bestows an obligatory and imperative nature and the condition of law of preferent application, upon the human rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration. The Pact establishes in its Article 21, “Right to Property. 1. Everyone has the right to the use and enjoyment of his property. The law may subordinate such use and enjoyment to the interest of society… 2. No one shall be deprived of his property except upon payment of just compensation, for reasons of public utility or social interest, and in the cases and according to the forms established by law…”

Twenty-First Century Socialism, or Castrochavism, is the expansion of Cuba’s dictatorship that has installed dictatorships in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador (now back under democracy), and Nicaragua. This socialism has also established as Para-Dictatorial, the governments of; Fernández/Kirchner in Argentina, López Obrador in México, Petro in Colombia, Lula in Brazil and intermittently Boric in Chile. In dictatorships, private property -in its real and lawful nature- is inexistent. The para-dictatorial governments promote, allow, and commit violations to property and use their countries as launching platforms for attacks against private property in those countries with democracy.

Private property is a “legal and economic concept that establishes the right of individuals or organizations, to the possession, control, and disposition of an asset,” that includes the right of inheritance that today is fundamentally a social concept. This human right imposes the protection of individuals in their dealings with the State and the obligation of the State and its civil servants to protect the property and the owners.

Property is personal property, real property, and intangible property, they are a person’s possessions and belongings, from the essential elements to live, such as; clothing, housing, instruments or tools of work, belongings of business or industrial ventures, their intellectual capabilities, designs, creations, and brands. Property includes all assets and “is the means to increase wealth in the society.”

The violation of the human right to have property in the Americas, attempts to justify itself with the Castrochavist narrative that presents property as something shameful, an abnormality, a threat, the cause of poverty and of all ill that the very same dictators produce. Reality shows that attempting against private property is misery, as proven by Hanke’s Misery Index that in 2022 identified Cuba as the most miserable country of the world, followed by Venezuela, and in sixth place Argentina. Venezuela led this ranking for six years.

The disregard of, and the unpunished attacks against, the human right to property has been ongoing and is repeated as a structured action in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Perú, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and practically throughout Latin America. It is done with; the arbitrary and violent takeover of rural and urban property, the usurpation of communications’ media, the occupation and dismantling of companies and factories, the theft of personal belongings, the suspension of licenses to prevent performance of activities, the manipulation of education through collective narratives, the destruction of private and public property that includes basic public services.

To attempt against private property is a crime, and to do it from and by the government is a crime against humanity as specified by Article 7.1.h. of the Statute of Rome. What remains pending, therefore, is the task to educate and empower society on the exercise and defense of the human right to private property as the basis of freedom.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas