Despicable constitutions of dictatorships are null and are proof of their violation of human rights with state-terrorism

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
November 27, 2024

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) With the counterfeiting of the term “constitution,” dictatorships of 21st Century Socialism in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, impose despicable fundamental laws through which they institutionalize their regimes. These are legal standards that are null and void of any legal right whose unlawful content is imposed through constituent assemblies or constitutional reforms with fictitious majorities, fraud, violence, and are proof of human rights’ violations and State-terrorism.

The law is “the precept dictated by competent authority through which something is ordered or prohibited in consonance with justice and for the common good of those governed.” For laws to be lawful they must be; legitimate, fair, and valid. When a statutory provision that is not fair and is not aimed to the common good of the citizenry is approved, it is infamy and every citizen has the right to challenge it through the mechanisms of the “rule of law.”

Dictatorship is “that political regime who, by force or violence, concentrates all power onto a person, or group, or organization and represses human rights and basic individual freedoms.” Dictatorships manage the criminal groups they organize and, in this context, “a despicable law is that which is drafted and established following the lawful formal proceedings for its creation but violates, in its intent and content, human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

The “fundamental despicable laws” that dictatorships label as their “constitutions” are -simply stated- a set of despicable laws upon which they base the institutionalization of their criminal organizations with a disguised narrative of revolution, populism, anti-imperialism, socialism, or all combined. These also are, however, flagrant, and documented proof of the crimes committed by dictators and their transnational organized crime groups.

Organized crime’s most recent operation under the label of “constitutional reforms” was executed by dictator Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua who -in case of his death- and under evident pressure from his wife Rosario Murillo already a co-dictator, has instituted changes to convert his Castrochavist dictatorship into a familial tyranny. Ninety-one were the puppets who boast the title of “congressmen” who, without any deliberation or paperwork formality, subjected the State under a “diarchy.”

They approved “that the presidency of the republic directs the government and as the head of the State; coordinates the legislative, judicial, electoral, control and accountability of all regional and municipal entities. . .” This is only a copy of Cuba, of the Bolivarian Venezuela, of the Plurinational Bolivia, and the proclamation of Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

Moreover, the recently approved text, mandates that upon the death of one of the two dictators (Daniel Ortega), his co-dictator will assume the whole dictatorship. Co-dictators can designate vice-presidents, as in Venezuela. They have institutionalized Statelessness as a crime to enable the government to have a mechanism for repression by mandating “traitors of the homeland lose Nicaraguan citizenship.” Not surprisingly, they have set the flag of the guerilla’s Sandinista Front as their national flag, a mere repetition of the imposition of the “Wiphala” as the flag of the Plurinational dictatorship of Bolivia, or the addition of a horse to the left of the national shield used by Venezuela’s dictatorship.

Standardizing the narratives of dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, they have imposed Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Hugo Chávez, and others as the “new heroes” and, since this is about organized crime, they have mastered the use of sophistry by constitutionalizing a “volunteer police corps” to do their dirty work.

Dictatorships consider the press and the church as enemies to be eliminated, reason why their constitutions mandate “no one person, nor organization, may conduct activities that attempt against the public order,” and to eliminate freedom of speech and freedom of the press has the disgraceful mandate that “the State shall oversee all communication and social networks to ensure these are not subjected to foreign interests or disseminate fake news that may attempt against the rights of the peoples…”

The dictatorial constitutions from Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia violate the human rights to; life, liberty, and security of the people; prevent the people’s subjection, slavery, or servitude; not to be tortured, have cruel or degrading sentences or treatment; have the right to legal due-process, equality before the law; have access to an effective recourse before the tribunals; not be arbitrarily detained, imprisoned, or uprooted; have access to an independent and impartial tribunal; the presumption of innocence; the non-retroactivity of the law; enjoy a private life, and not be arbitrarily deprived of nationality; own private property; enjoy freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; enjoy freedom of opinion or expression; freedom of reunion and to participate in the government; have truly authentic elections.

The so-called, and ill-conceived, dictatorial “constitutions” violate just about each and every lawful mandated article regarding the common good of society. From Article 2 to Article 21 of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from Article 3 to Article 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights or the Pact of San Jose. These dictatorial alleged “constitutions” are the fundamental laws of infamy and disgrace!

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas

Published in Spanish by infobae.com Sunday November 24, 2024