In democracy, organized crime is neither ideology, nor politics.

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The confrontation this 21st century in the Americas, of dictatorships against democracy is neither an ideological nor a political dispute, it is existential. Dictatorships, with Cuba as head and model -that turned 20th century Castroism into 21st century Castrochavism- are governed by a structured transnational group that acts in concert, committing crime to indefinitely hold power in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, obtaining directly or indirectly economic, political benefits and impunity. By its very nature and fundamental components, in democracy organized crime does not have an ideological, or political status.

Ever since the 11th of September of 2001 as mandated by the Interamerican Democratic Charter “Americas’ peoples have the right to a democracy and their governments have the obligation to promote and defend it”. Democracy is defined by its essential components that are; “respect for human rights and individual basic freedoms, access to the government and discharging its functions thereof subject to the rule of law, conducting periodic, free and fair elections based on secret balloting and universal suffrage concepts as an expression of the peoples’ sovereignty, having a plurality of political parties and organizations, and the separation and independence of the branches of government”.

The peaceful protests of the Cuban people starting on 11 July of 2021 and the response of Cuba’s dictatorship with flagrant crimes and state-sponsored terrorism and crimes against humanity, have shown the world the nature of a regime that for the past 62 years has handled the revolutionary fallacy. The myths have fallen, myths of; a Cuban Revolution, the liberation of the peoples, anti-imperialism, the embargo, the successes of the revolution, the disguise of politics to coverup crime have fallen. Factual reality reveals a structured transnational organized crime group, Castro-Diaz Canel, that directs and executes all sorts of crime in order to continue holding power.

Venezuela’s situation, turned into Cuba’s main colony and platform, has Nicolas Maduro -sought by the international justice with a bounty of $ 15 million dollars for his capture- manipulating his reentry into politics with a dialogue to have “elections in a dictatorship” or “elections with crimes against humanity”. His objective is to place the organized crime’s organization and its leaders as political actors, this way to continue holding power, while nearly 6 million Venezuelans have been forced to flee their country by the greatest humanitarian crisis, the violation of human rights and the turning of the country into a narco-state.

In Bolivia, to coverup the gargantuan electoral fraud of 20 October of 2020, the regime falsifies the narrative insisting the electoral fraud of October of 2019 -certified by the OAS and the European Union- that motivated a massive civil resistance movement culminating with Evo Morales’ resignation, was a “Coup d’ Etat” and with a new wave of crimes against humanity and state-sponsored terrorism there are now 45 political prisoners, over 1,800 exiled, and the government’s “functional opposition” is a “hostage”. The supplantation of the “Republic of Bolivia” through similar crimes, the establishment of a narco-state, the president’s absolute control of all branches of government, the judicialized repression, are all features of a dictatorship that some people wrongly call “a democracy with crises”.

In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continue shoving down the throat of the whole world the narrative of elections to be held on 7 November 2021, despite the fact they have illegally arrested all opposition candidates, they have disqualified political parties, and have staged a falsified scenario to be the only candidates in the running. The world is witnessing -in real time- the flagrant crimes that Ortega and his structured group commit and repeat and that have resulted in their having 436 political prisoners and over 150,000 exiled. The chain of crimes to substitute the will of the people with fraud, includes crimes against humanity and State-sponsored terrorism, all while they continue falsely reiterating the words “elections and democracy”.

Pedro Castillo in Peru has begun a government comprised by criminals and terrorists and has proclaimed the breaking-down of the democratic order as his objective. Alberto Fernandez and Cristina de Kirchner from Argentina and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from Mexico are at the service of the dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua to sustain them and expand the Castrochavist system with the Forum of Sao Paolo and the Puebla Group as instruments of the Transnational Organized Crime’s system that they are a part of.

An objective analysis of reality -facts- reveals that democracy cannot accept organized crime as neither a political, nor ideological matter. To do that, is to self-destruct.

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

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