The two Americas in the global war of dictatorship against democracy

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Russia’s invasion to Ukraine has produced the global war of dictatorship against democracy. A conflict in which neutrality is not possible, a fight with armed actions in Ukrainian territory but with a generalized, economic, political, communicational confrontation and consequences that impact everyone. This war brings to the forefront the existence of “two Americas”, the democratic one and the dictatorial other, and demands the urgency of facing the serious consequences for having allowed organized crime to hold power in the dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.

To try to present the dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua as democracies or revolutionary undertakings and to pretend they are not part of one same group under the control of Cuba, are two lies or narratives that Russia’s invasion to Ukraine has dispelled. The need to defend Russia’s flagrant crimes against the Ukrainian nation has obliged Americas’ dictatorships to risk exposure to coverup and protect Russian criminal acts, similar in nature to those they commit against the peoples they oppress.

Throughout this 21st century, Americas’ democracies have omitted to consider and neutralize the threat the region’s dictatorships represent, dictatorships who -starting with Cuba’s dictatorial expansion- have been able to install its model of State terrorism with dictatorships/narco-States in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua and to control governments of democratic countries such as Argentina with Fernandez-Kirchner and Mexico with Lopez Obrador.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has compelled dictatorships from throughout the world to cluster together around the assailant and to defend its model of government based on the violation of freedom and human rights. The crimes against humanity flagrantly committed by the invaders have forced dictatorships to cover them up, to protect the attacker and to defend its impunity, because they need the same treatment for the crimes, they commit in an institutionalized manner to continue holding power. This is about a criminal assault based on counterfeited narratives and the brutal and indiscriminate use of force to subject peoples who want to live with freedom.

What, at the beginning, seemed to be a war confined to Ukrainian territory has turned out to be a global holocaust because the free world was forced to quickly understand that what is being disputed is the social, legal, and political order of the world. The axis of confrontation is dictatorship against democracy as a way of life and how a society is organized.

A look at Russia’s actions, methods, violence, counterfeiting of motives, justification of their crimes, use of power and domination, violation of human rights, of life and liberty, against the Ukrainian peoples is similar to what 21 century socialism’s dictatorships have done and continue doing to the peoples from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.

Having backed the invasion and now facing its failure, dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua and the para-dictatorial governments of Argentina and Mexico chose “to abstain” that is only another way of supporting the aggressor. Given the fact that; “peace is an international legal obligation”, that “the war of aggression is a crime” and having flagrantly proven the execution of “crimes against humanity”, there is no possible abstention not to ignore the enforcement of the law. Whomsoever abstains in enforcing the law is a criminal.

The votes of member States at the United Nations’ General Assembly that determined to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Commission was a direct consequence of the recent “carnage at Bucha” in which Russian occupation troops assassinated over 400 civilians. During the vote-taking, the dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua voted in favor of Russia’s crimes because they commit the same crimes in their countries, the type of crime is the same, the number and nature of the victims does not change a crime against humanity. The way Americas’ dictatorships voted is for self-protection and confession at the same time.

The dictatorial America comprised by Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, backed by the governments of Fernandez-Kirchner in Argentina and Lopez Obrador in Mexico, are very much a part of the global dictatorship led by Russia and has gone from being a threat to being the frontal enemy of the democratic America. Everyone in the world knows this, there are faint signs that democratic governments recognize this, but there are yet any response as a result.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.
Author of the book “The Two Americas, Democracy and Dictatorship” Amazon Editorial, 2012. Intdemocratic.

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas