SPAIN´S FOREIGN POLICY TO SUSTAIN DICTATORSHIPS IN LATIN-AMERICA

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
September 26, 2018

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Changes in Spain´s foreign policy regarding freedom, democracy, and the respect for Human Rights in the Americas are for the worse, publicly known and widely noted in just over 100 days that Pedro Sanchez was sworn as the Government´s President.  What were inklings suggesting the price for Pablo Iglesias and PODEMOS´ backing to the investiture of the PSOE would be the sustainment of the dictatorships for which Iglesias works and their funding, are now amply evident in Spain´s new foreign policy aiming to sustain the Castroist Chavist dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.   

Article 1.1 of Spain´s constitution establishes that “Spain is constituted as a social and democratic Rule of Law State that promotes; freedom, justice, equality, and political pluralism, as the higher values of its legal framework”.  In Article 10.2, regarding the rights of the individual, it states “the standards relevant to the basic freedoms and liberties that the Constitution recognizes, shall be interpreted in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international agreements and treaties on these, ratified by Spain”.

A State´s foreign policy is formulated on the basis of principles and self interests and is an expression of its internal policies.  Rafael Calduch from Madrid´s Complutense University considers “foreign policy as that part of the general policy formed by the set of decisions and acts through which objectives are defined and the means of a State are utilized in order to generate, modify, or suspend its relations with other actors from the international community”

Within this framework, it is expected for Spain´s foreign policy to be based on the principles of its Constitution and its society, which are; freedom, justice, democracy, and the respect for Human Rights, thus promoting its legitimate interests of; influence, security, economic, commercial, and cultural, expansion and exchanges.  It is about the foreign policy of the State and not the party´s or coalition´s in power whose ideology or political position will influence its drafting, but not to the point of violating the fundamental principles of the State. 

The objective reality shows that Pedro Sanchez could not have won without the backing of Pablo Iglesias and his PODEMOS political party, reason why he, evidently, entered into a covenant committing a quota or slice of the political pie that deals –among others now being revealed- with the area of communications, information, and international relations in favor of the dictatorial regimes from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua (besides the FARC´s and others in Colombia) that constituted as the Bolivarian Movement, or 21^st Century Socialism promoted and funded PODEMOS in different (some already publicly proven) ways.

In the framework of the OAS´ Interamerican Democratic Charter (IDC), of which Spain is a Permanent Observer, there is no doubt over the dictatorial condition of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, because these regimes do not comply with none of the fundamental components of democracy.  There is no respect for freedom or basic human rights, there is political judicialized persecution, there are political prisoners and exiles, bloody repression, massacres, and torture.  There is no Rule of Law or separation and independence of the branches of government, there is no possibility of free or fair elections, and there is no free political organization or freedom of the press.

While in the Americas there is an on-going fight for freedom and democracy, and the peoples from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia are the victims of the daily violation of their human rights by the Castroist Chavist regimes who oppress them, the President of Spain´s government carries out its new foreign policy of sustainment to the regimes of Diaz-Canel in Cuba, Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.   A quick glance at Pedro Sanchez´s and his Ministry of Foreign Affairs´ international agenda corroborate this.

Cuban, Venezuelan, Bolivian, and Nicaraguan political exiles and refugees live in Spain, they are the victims of the dictatorships of Castro-Diaz-Canel, Chavez-Maduro, Morales and Ortega.  Today, the fight against the dictatorships to restore freedom and democracy is not about a confrontation of the right against the left, it is a matter of fundamental principles against Organized Crime´s regimes who have installed narco-states, now supported and backed by Spain´s new foreign policy, to the detriment and dishonor of the democratic left who the PSOE always sought to represent.

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

Publiched in Infobae.com on Sunday September 23, 2018
 

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