Recognize and treat all 21st century socialism dictatorships as one sole entity

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Democratic governments and leaders consider and treat dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua as though they were different subjects or processes, granting them different and diverse treatments and even admitting the narratives with which they oppress their peoples. Reality, however, bestows upon democracies the responsibility to recognize and treat all dictatorships of 21st Century Socialism, as one same and sole entity of the expansion of Cuba’s dictatorship with its same methodology and objectives.

The non-democratic regimes of the region are a transnational organization known as 21st Century Socialism, or Castrochavism, that originated from the process -implemented by Hugo Chavez starting in 1999 when he ascended to the government of Venezuela- to salvage the agonizing dictatorship of Cuba in its “Special Period.” The reactivation of the Cuban dictatorship was made possible by the oil wealth and money from Venezuela that, along with the financing from a subversive scheme called “the Forum of Sao Paolo” organized by Lula da Silva and taking advantage of the distancing of the United States in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, produced the toppling of governments, crime, assassination of reputations of political leaders and parties.

If the Cuban dictatorship had not existed at the beginning of this century, Venezuela -with its local operator Nicolas Maduro sought by international law enforcement with a bounty of $15 million dollars for his capture- would not have been a dictatorship today. Bolivia would not have endured the coup d’etat of 2003 to then be converted through bloody massacres into a dictatorship with the label of “Plurinational State” under the control of coca leaf harvesters and cocaine producers. Ecuador would not have endured the over ten-year dictatorial regime of Rafael Correa whose consequences still weigh-down over the Ecuadorean people. Nicaragua would not have reinstated Sandinism to wreck democracy and be today the most brazen and ostentatious dictatorship violating human rights.

The sustained attacks and defeats that democracy has and still endures in the Americas in this 21st century, stem from; the reactivation of the criminal operations of Cuba’s dictatorship with the resources from Venezuela, Cuba’s total control of Venezuela following the death of Hugo Chavez, the international corruption fueled by federal funds from Brazil with Lula da Silva and the open participation in narcotics’ trafficking that has converted Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua into narco-States, the unlimited resources and international organization with one sole command that attacks internally and internationally.

As a base of the former Soviet Union (USSR), Cuba’s dictatorship ever since its beginnings in 1959, developed several criminal mechanisms of aggression against the peoples and countries of the Americas; invasions, guerrillas, criminal groups, rural and urban guerrilla combatants, kidnappings, terrorism, narcotics’ trafficking, cultural warfare, conspiracies, insurrections, coups d’etat, and more. In this 21st century, all of the above has been repeated and updated, noticeably adding the mechanism for electoral manipulations to exploit the conditions and advantages of democracy.

Internally, the system to indefinitely stay in the government and wield power in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua is exactly the same. This is the system the dictatorship from Cuba uses for the past 65 years, namely “State-terrorism” that yields as condemnatory proof the over 1,300 political prisoners in Cuba, 300 in Venezuela, 324 in Bolivia, and over 100 in Nicaragua, all imprisoned by a system that uses false accusations, manipulation of prosecutors and judges, torture, extortion to families and defenders, and a “revolving door” to keep the number of victims at a constant. The persecutions, exile, assassinations both physical and of reputations, the inexistence of freedom of the press, the formation of “functional oppositions,” the corruption, purges, defense of narcotics’ trafficking, along with the protection given to narcotics’ traffickers and more, all with an anti-imperialistic discourse are further proof.

Internationally, dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, along with the Para-Dictatorial governments from; Mexico with Lopez Obrador, Colombia with Petro, Brazil with Lula, and Chile with Boric, all operate in unison to; sustain Cuba’s dictatorship, deliberately ignoring any time they are not protecting or justifying the dictatorships’ crimes, backing Russia in its invasion to Ukraine, finger-pointing to Israel, and attempting to be part of an anti-democratic worldwide block. Cuba has replicated its condition as a military launching platform and a regional geo-strategic threat in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua by paving the way for an aggressive presence of dictatorships from Russia, China, and Iran in the Americas and the surrendering and delivery of strategic natural resources to them. Castrochavism is a threat to peace and security and its condition of being a transnational criminal entity can no longer continue to be ignored.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas