Colombia for democracy in Latin America

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
August 10, 2018

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Due to its geo-political situation and the regional challenges Colombia is now the center of definition of vital interests for the Americas.  Its bordering condition with Venezuela, cocaine production that has surpassed all limits, narco-terrorist guerillas tied to politics, and the threat of the fenced-in but still dangerous Castroist Chavist dictatorial organization that subjects Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua are problems for Colombia and for the region.  The personal and political conditions of President Ivan Duque create a historic moment that places Colombia in the responsibility of leading the recovery and consolidation of democracy in Latin America.

Among the dangers for the Americas are; narcotics’ trafficking, terrorism, organized crime and the people’s insecurity, that are precisely the activities that Castroist Chavist regimes from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia promote, manage, and utilize to keep themselves indefinitely in power.

The narco-state condition of Venezuela with Maduro and Bolivia with Morales, the narco-terrorist activities of the FARC and other groups sustained and defended by the regimes from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia have been identified. With the Peace Process with the FARC in Colombia the world’s cocaine production has grown exponentially to around 200,000 hectares of coca leaf plantations and over 70,000 hectares with Evo Morales and his Coca Leaf Harvester Unions wielding the power of government in Bolivia.

While Evo Morales, on behalf of the dictatorial group, accused at the United Nations in April of 2016 that the war against narcotics’ trafficking was “the North American imperialism’s  instrument of intervention”, the increased production of cocaine in Colombia and Bolivia flooded the Americas with drugs, driving the prevalence of consumption in countries such as; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and others, enabling the development of drug cartels, “Maras”, gangs, and other criminal organizations, thereby increasing the people’s insecurity and forcing many to migrate elsewhere.

Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is a problem for the entire region, with special pressure placed on Colombia now turned into a scape route and destination for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.  Forced migration, encouraged by Maduro’s dictatorship, replicates the Castroist technique applied time and again in Cuba with the three-fold objective of; weakening the internal resistance, come up with a cash flow of moneys sent by the exiles, and manipulate the power of negotiation with the offer of stopping the diaspora.

With the leadership of Latin America in the hands of Hugo Chavez and then Fidel and Raul Castro, the 21^stCentury in the Americas has been branded by the change of the axis of confrontation of the left with the right to that between dictatorship against democracy. Panama’s Summit of the Americas in 2015, marks the time of the dictatorships’ greater success over democracy, something that has progressively reverted with milestones such as the OAS’ return to its principles with Secretary Almagro, the victory of Macri in Argentina, the impeachment of Rousseff and jailing of Lula for corruption in Brazil, the outcome -still partial outcome- of the “Lava Jato” scandal, the ruining of Venezuela’s economy, the change in the United States’ foreign policy towards Cuba and other dictatorships, Lima’s Summit of the Americas in 2018, the progressive return to democracy in Ecuador with Moreno, and Duque’s electoral victory in Colombia.

The recent meeting in Havana of the Forum of Sao Paolo is the last and failed effort of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia’s dictatorships to try keeping their political façade of being “leftist and progressive forces” at a time when the region and the world identify them as bloody “Transnational Organized Crime’s regimes” who violate Human Rights on a daily basis.

Latin America faces a time in which the ending of dictatorships is an obligation inherent to international peace and security.  The complexity of the battles that remain to be fought range from the imposition of more sanctions, the application of the Palermo Convention, the pursuit of timely diplomatic efforts, credible threats, up to the taking of collective actions.  This historic resolution needs a Latin-American leadership backed by the region’s and the world’s democracies who, due to geopolitical reasons and those of common interest, direct their sight to Colombia’s new president.

Published in Spanish by Infobae.com on Sunday August 5th, 2018

Translated from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators Association, ATA # 234680.