The Summit of the Americas must strengthen the Interamerican Democratic Charter

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Holding the 9th Summit of the Americas, an event the dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua cannot attend, prove; the existence of “two Americas” the democratic one and the dictatorial other, and the existing confrontation encouraged and promoted by Bolivia’s dictatorship and by the governments of Mexico and Argentina. The nature of dictatorial regimes is determined by the origins of the summits and by the Interamerican Democratic Charter that, be it as it may, does not have either the mechanisms to prevent the expansion of dictatorships or to restore democracy. The Summit of the Americas is the event to strengthen the Interamerican Democratic Charter.

The current way of holding the Summits of the Americas started with the Summit of Miami held from 9 to 11 December of 1994 as a proposal from Bill Clinton, president of the United States and had as its fundamental objectives “democracy and economic integration”. Thirty-four Heads of State and government attended, all of the attendees had been democratically elected and signed a “Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action”.

The Declaration of Principles “establishes a covenant for development and prosperity based on the preservation and strengthening of the community comprised by Americas’ democracies”. The Plan of Action identifies “the strengthening of democracy and human rights” as the first two of twenty-three mandates that ranged from “the strengthening of society, cultural values, corruption, narcotics’ trafficking, terrorism, mutual trust, free trade, capital markets, hemispheric infrastructure” and more.

The Summits of the Americas have produced the Interamerican Democratic Charter, a foundational treaty subscribed in Lima on 11 September of 2001 at a Special Session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS). One year before, at the 3rd Summit of the Americas held in Quebec from 20 to 22 April of 2000, the “drafting of the Interamerican Democratic Charter to strengthen OAS’ tools for the active defense of representative democracy” was approved as the most important issue of the summit’s political declaration.

At this same Summit of Quebec, the Heads of State and Government “adopted a democratic clause establishing that any alteration or unconstitutional departure from the democratic order of any State of the hemisphere, constitutes an unsurmountable obstacle for the government of such State to participate in the Summits of the Americas”.

The Summit of the Americas is a summit for democratic leaders and for democracy. It was created as a gathering of democratically elected Heads of State and Governments who are committed to strengthen democracy and are obligated to the fulfillment of principles, values, and legal requirements of the democratic system.

The Interamerican Democratic Charter (IDC) mandates in its 1st Article; “The nations of America have the right to democracy and their governments have the obligation to promote and defend it. Democracy is essential for the social, political, and economic development of Americas’ nations”. In its 3rd Article, the IDC establishes the essential components of democracy; “The respect for human rights and basic individual freedoms; access to be the government and discharging its duties subject to the rule of law; the conduct of periodic, free, fair, elections that are based on universal suffrage concepts and are secret as an expression of the peoples sovereignty; the plurality of political parties and organizations; and the separation and independence of the branches of government”.

This law of America’s democracy is the one that allows us to identify dictatorships as regimes that do not respect the “right to democracy” and prove their violation of human rights with the existence of political prisoners and exiles, with the shocking sentences against those politically persecuted, with the absence of the rule of law, and the absence of separation and independence of the branches of government. These are proof that through their new legislation and new constitutions, these regimes practice State-terrorism that suppresses all components of democracy.

Notwithstanding, the Interamerican Democratic Charter does not have a specific mechanism to prevent the expansion of dictatorships, neither does it have effective and timely sanctions, nor procedures to recover democracy by restoring essential democratic components. It is a charter in whose period of existence dictatorships have increased by 400%, going from solely one -that of Cuba- to the current four including Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua’s who are organized as a transnational group that conspires against defenseless democracies.

The current reality places on the Summit of the Americas the urgent main task of strengthening the Interamerican Democratic Charter, bestowing it with effective mechanisms to prevent the spread of dictatorships, to dole out collective and timely sanctions and equip it with procedures to restore democracy where needed.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas