We must promote and implement “The narrative of the truth” to defeat dictatorships

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) To present State-terrorism as revolution, violations of human rights as popular defense, the oppressed as subversives, political prisoners and tortured as criminals, the exiled as fugitives, the main transnational organized crime organization as 21st Century Socialism, the crimes of corruption and narcotics’ trafficking as political acts, and conspiracy as the liberation of the peoples, are all exclusively a part of “the narrative of falsification” that the Cuban dictatorship has crafted and sustains with its dictatorships from Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and the governments of Argentina and Mexico. These and other colossal lies are the dictatorships’ sustenance and to defeat them, it urges us to foster and promote the exercising of the “narrative of truth”.

The narrative is “the oral or written description of an event, real or fictitious, with the purpose of persuading or entertaining the onlooker”. The narrative may involve true or falsified facts and this is why -in the realm of the counterfeiting of facts- it is an essential tool of dictatorships, totalitarian and tyrannical regimes and any other regime wishing to illegitimately hold power. The “narrative of truth” is that which “cannot be rationally denied, because it is the reality”.

When objective facts show that Cuba’s dictatorship commits all sorts of crime against its own people, a population that it subjects to famine and misery, a population that is victimized through modern slavery systems, a population that it terrorizes with the use of an apparatus for violent repression and judicial simulation, the question then is; why and how does this regime sustain itself? … But when one ascertains that in this 21st century Cuba’s dictatorship has expanded and established dictatorships under its command and methodology in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, the question then becomes; Can democracies and their leaders do anything to end this disgrace? Can they -at least- tell the truth?

Beyond the limitations of the International Legal System, what sustains Cuba’s dictatorship for over 63 years is the narrative -from the start- of presenting its criminal acts as revolutionary and continue with a long chain of counterfeiting of the facts, showing itself to be a victim when -in true reality- it attacks all democracies from throughout the region, presenting itself as a political project for liberation, when in truth it is an organization of attacks and crime.

On one side of the coin, at the international level, the narrative of the Cuban Revolution is perhaps the best sold falsehood, followed by the messianic narrative of Fidel Castro and the falsely epic of Che Guevara that presents criminals as heroes and the narratives of; the “antiimperialist fight” and the “North American blockade”. All false, just as the lies about the successes in education and healthcare in Cuba. On the other side of the coin and living proof that contradicts the false narratives, are the youth and all population out on the streets starting on 11 July of 2021 asking for freedom, homeland and life. Massive protests and demonstrations that continue following one year of their start and are a sign of the terminal crisis the Cuban dictatorship is in, a dictatorship that seeks to survive with more false narratives expected through its pantomimist operators Maduro, Ortega, Morales, Fernandez/Kirchner, Lopez Obrador.

From the democratic side, there is no narrative and messages are local and national. No one upholds the “narrative of truth” regarding Cuba’s dictatorship and -least of all- its expansion this 21st century that took it to establish dictatorships from Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and -at one point- Ecuador, and the Organization of American States (OAS) and others.

This is neither about crafting a counter-narrative, nor responding to Cuba’s -the Dictatorship-In-Chief- of Castrochavism’s counterfeited narrative, it is about taking the initiative of presenting the truth, the factual reality, the facts how they are, and how the common and ordinary people endure them. To call things by their name and to make the practitioners of such things accountable to the legal and international legal consequences they have. To reiterate that the acts of the Cuban regime, after the 11-J protests are “State terrorism” and “crimes against humanity” and to apply the Statute from Rome and the Palermo Convention, this is the “narrative of the truth”.

This is about acknowledging that there are other dictatorships operated by Cuba. Dictatorships such as; the one from Nicaragua with the imprisonment and sentencing of innocent individuals, the one from Bolivia that imprisons and exiles people using the same methods, the one from Venezuela, the oldest one applying these same methods. To treat Castrochavism’s dictatorships as though they were different and independent institutions and the Para-Dictatorial governments from Argentina and Mexico as if they were neutral, is to be an accomplice in the counterfeited narrative and to reject the “narrative of the truth”.

The narrative of the truth consists in acknowledging the objective reality and to present it as a proposition and not as a response, or as an accusation, or as defense: Cuba is the “Dictatorship-In-Chief” and is a threat for the Americas. Politics must be separated from organized crime. By their actions, subjected peoples are already crafting the narrative of the truth, what is now missing are actions by democratic governments and leaders.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas