Twenty-first century socialism does not have the people, economy, narrative, nor any options

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Twenty-First Century Socialism is the registered trademark to present the transnational organized crime’s system -that has expanded Cuba’s dictatorship to Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua- as a political system. These are Castrochavist dictatorships that wield power with a uniform State-terrorism, political prisoners, torture, exile, and narco-States. They are productors of misery and fear who, nowadays, no longer have the popular backing, are bankrupt, have lost their narrative, and now remain without options.

Millions of Cubans and Venezuelans, thousands of Nicaraguans, and Bolivians, have been forced to abandon their countries by the insecurity of living without respect of their human rights. The direct consequence of the 20th century Castroist model turned into 21st Century Castrochavism is fear and misery, producers of forcible migrations that affect the entire region and the world that dictatorships in-turn use as an attack weapon against democracy.

Twenty-First Century Socialism is the repetition of totalitarian communism defeated by history with the disappearance of the Soviet Union (1990-1991). It is the search for justification for Organized Crime, orchestrated from Cuba to indefinitely wield power with; impunity, a populist discourse of anti-imperialism, an alleged fight against poverty, all while it does all of the contrary. Cuba’s dictatorship has turned 20th Century Communist Castroism into 21st Century Socialism, more of the same but only Organized Crime.

For almost 65 years, Cuba’s dictatorship produces crime, misery, and confrontation. At the start, it publicized a popular backing that today has turned into a generalized repudiation; in 1959 it took-over a country with a great economy and quickly turned it into one of the most miserable of the world, one in which people cannot feed themselves daily with the minimum amount of food that a human being needs.

When Cuba’s dictatorship was agonizing during its “special period,” having lost its financial subsidy with the disappearance of the Soviet Union, Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela in 1999 and immediately thereafter salvaged the Castroist regime. He started a process in which Cuba had eliminated Chavez, controls Venezuela as its main colony, and has taken Venezuela to misery and squalor.

This is this century’s history in the Americas, the expansion of Cuba’s dictatorship. It supplanted democracy with its system in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. Ecuador regained democracy due to the management of President Lenin Moreno; Bolivia and Venezuela failed due to the high-treason and corruption of principal actors at critical historic moments of the years 2019 and following. The system made it to countries that while they have democracy, such as Argentina with the Kirchner’s, Brazil with Lula, Mexico with Lopez Obrador, Colombia with Petro, and Chile with Boric, are living testimony of its shamefulness. Argentina is, perhaps, the most dramatical example by occupying the sixth place in Hanke’s “Index of Misery.” Colombia, with Petro, just reported that the exportation of Cocaine will be greater than of Colombian oil.

In 1999, Venezuela was the richest and most democratically stable country of Latin America, 25 years afterwards, it is a dictatorship, a narco-State, and the most miserable. It has expelled nearly 8 million Venezuelans and every year it disputes with Cuba for the first place in the global index of misery. The dictatorial system made Venezuela equal to Cuba, turning the richest country into the most miserable one.

In Bolivia, they supplanted the Republic for a Plurinational State that turned out to be a narco-State, they squandered the wealth from natural gas just as Cuba squandered the wealth from sugar and the wealth from oil in Venezuela. Bolivia in 2003, when the democratically elected government was toppled, was a potential exporter of its gas reserves. The coup d’état that ended democracy was labeled “the gas war” and as part of their triumph the topplers finished the gas to become a satellite of the Cuban dictatorship.

Nicaragua is a ranch of dictators Ortega/Murillo who, in association with the great wealth of local businessmen and of shady international financial operations, have turned it into the Central American country with the lesser index of economic freedom due to inefficiency, uncertainty, and corruption. Just as in all dictatorships, the ruling elite is multimillionaire and needs impunity.

Due to this reality and the people’s awareness, none of the dictatorships have popular backing nowadays, no one believes in the Cuban revolution, the Bolivarian revolution, the Sandinista revolution, nor in the Bolivian Process for Change. They are all lies that once upon a time were basic narratives of Castrochavism. To solely boost their perceived relevance, dictatorships insist at international forums they organize and fund.

The most important point for 21st Century Socialism dictatorships is that they have ran out of options, they have no possibility of securing anything that will allow them to survive, its end is foretold by its nature and failure. Their essence as “criminal States” they already exert is not sustainable.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas