The global war of dictatorship against democracy turns one-year old

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Russia’s invasion to Ukraine on 24 February of 2022 signaled the beginning of the first global war in which the battlefront is, up to now, restricted to Ukrainian territory but that in reality is a clash that does not exclude anyone and in which the real confrontation is the dictatorships’ attack against democracy.

In the capitalist and globalized world of the 21st century the concentration of power, with or under any excuse, at the expense of the peoples’ freedom, sets the conditions of dictatorships in which there is neither respect for human rights, nor the rule of law, nor separation and independence of the branches of government, executing State-terrorism in order to wield power and enjoy impunity. On the other hand, democracy is founded on freedom and respect of human rights as the basis of society’s organization, with the temporariness and alternance of power as a mandate with the obligation of being responsible and accountable, subject to the law and with the separation and independence of the branches of government.

The fundamental difference between dictatorship and democracy has to do with the freedom of individual human beings. Under a dictatorship, using fear and violence, the will of the people is violated in order to place them at the service of a regime. Democracy is founded to be at the service of peoples’ freedom, guarantees the balance of rights and obligations, power rests with the people that grants temporary and regulated mandates to their representatives and ensures free political organization and participation and freedom of the press.

In this 21st century, the dispute is how countries are governed and managed. As a consequence of the technological revolution, all States and governments are part of capitalism and globalization. Twenty-first century dictatorships are capitalists and are unavoidably involved in the globalization but they wield power violating the freedom and rights of their citizens whom they subject and reduce a condition of being servants of the State, practicing capitalism for power groups who in reality are criminal organizations.

In this First Global War, all States throughout the world are involved and there are only two sides to the conflict; dictatorships, as exemplified by Russia as the aggressor at the battlefront, and democracies, with Ukraine as the image for a nation defending the principles and values of freedom.

Russia is controlled by a dictatorship that considers itself nationalist and all the world’s dictatorships participate and have aligned around it; the so-called communist dictatorship of China, the theocratic dictatorship of Iran, the dynastic dictatorship of North Korea, the Castrochavist dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, and over two dozen other regimes that make up the over thirty dictatorships of the current world’s geopolitics. Ukraine is backed by democracies such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, Israel, Canada, and whomsoever understands that the Russian aggression is a threat to the entire world.

The attack of dictatorships against freedom has both; a local or national, and a global dimension. The global dimension was made objective with the invasion to Ukraine with which European countries, the free world and international peace and security are threatened. The national dimension is local and is against every one of the nations subjected by dictatorships; in Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and elsewhere and encompasses the subjection and oppression of the peoples who, through civil resistance, have never stopped fighting for their freedom and where there is institutional persecution, there are victims, political prisoners, and exiles.

On the global front, for now, dictatorships attack and invade a battlefront that is militarily limited to Ukraine but they also attack internally every country they oppress with State-terrorism they exert against States without democracy. The free world is conducting a global battle and Ukraine is a shield and a much-needed retaining wall but, up to now, the free world has done very little and would appear to ignore the peoples who fight against dictatorships in their countries, when -in reality- is the same enemy, the same attacker, and the same source for global aggression. If dictators would stop wielding power over the peoples they oppress, there would be no global attack.

To help the peoples to recover their freedom and democracy is the strategic foundation for international peacekeeping and security. It is an obligation that democratic leaders, governments, and States have reneged on without due consideration for the extraordinary harm this causes. The attackers and producers of violence have always been and are dictators, shady characters and groups that garner and concentrate power through criminal schemes and who go to war as a way to extend their control of power and their impunity.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas