Yes, to elections but not this way. Vote-catching dictatorships in Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) To manipulate the mechanisms of democracy with “controlled elections in which people vote but do not elect” in order to supplant democracy and indefinitely hold-on to the government, is the methodology of the 21st Century Socialism or Castrochavism. Lacking any of the essential components of democracy, rigging elections that are neither “free nor fair” are Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua’s “vote-catching dictatorships”. Neither the people from those countries, nor the international community, can again accept institutionalized fraud.

A vote-catching dictatorship is “a regime who, by force or violence, concentrates all political power in one person or one group that represses human rights and individual basic freedoms and uses elections as a means of simulation and propaganda to indefinitely hang-on to the government”. It is an authoritarian, tyrannic or totalitarian system with elections.

Elections conducted in a democracy must be “free, fair, and based on universal suffrage concepts of secrecy as an expression of the people’s sovereignty”. These features must concur and coexist with the other “essential components of democracy” contained in the Interamerican Democratic Charter, namely; “the respect for human rights and individual basic freedoms, have access to become the government and discharge its duties subject to the rule of law, have a plurality of political parties and organizations, and have the separation and independence of the branches of government”.

There are no “free or fair” elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia when: 1. There is violation of human rights and individual basic freedoms with politically persecuted, imprisoned, and exiled. 2. There is no “rule of law” because contravening constitutions and despicable laws infringing on human rights are applied to give the regime the advantage. 3. The dictatorship controls the branches of government with whom it manipulates elections and grants impunity. 4. There isn’t a regime of plurality of political parties and organizations, because it is manipulated by and penetrated into by the dictatorship through; “functional oppositions”, fear, or corruption. 5. There are guarantees for impunity for “the regime’s political party” that is nothing more than organized crime.

In Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, Castrochavism applies as common features: 1. A constitutional system in which it boasts to have -but does not exist- universal suffrage rules, because there is no “equality in the citizenry”. 2. A rigged electoral system with laws to enable the regime with relative minorities to simulate a majority, without the “rule of law” or “the separation and independence of the branches of government”. 3. A citizen’s registry and identification infrastructure that drafts counterfeited electoral registries. 4. A “functional opposition” that participates in elections to be legitimized and not to have a chance to ascend into power. 5. Fraudulent ballot counting, scrutinizing and processing mechanisms, with control of the judges, prosecutors, and authorities who guarantee impunity.

In Bolivia, dictator Evo Morales resigned on 10 November of 2019 confessing his fraud and other crimes, but the government which was meant to be a transitional government took it upon itself to grant continuity to the dictatorship, keeping its constitution, laws, control of the government, and impunity. Following two weeks of disturbances and road blockages throughout the country in the midst of the pandemic, the dictatorship imposed the 18th of October of 2020 as the date for elections to be held. Elections it may be able to win with fraud, with a candidate that should be tried for corruption, and with a political party; Movement Towards Socialism (MAS in Spanish), that should be disqualified.

In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro’s usurper regime, with all the vote-catching dictatorship’s elements that have been hereon described, has called for parliamentary elections on 6 December of 2020 and beyond that, it has judicially intervened at least seven opposition’s parties. The recent report by the United Nations on the violation of human rights is overwhelming, proving this to be a criminal regime and the inexistence of the rule of law. Up to now, twenty-seven (27) political parties have agreed not to participate in these elections.

In Nicaragua, the dictatorship has called for elections on 7 November of 2021. Nicaragua is now a country where -by the dictatorship’s despicable legislation- the president can be elected by a simple relative majority of votes. In April of 2018, Daniel Ortega repressed demands for social changes with hundreds of dead, wounded, detained, tortured, and thousands of exiled. Part of those demands was to have elections sooner and the dictator’s departure, but through intimidation and violence he still remains in power and will conduct an electoral process.

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