Dictators flaunt their crimes as a narrative of 21st century socialism

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Those wielding power in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua can only continue subjecting their peoples through the daily commission of crimes that violate human rights and with crimes against democracy, international peace, and security. Despite the seriousness of the internal and international commission of crimes, the Americas and the entire world seem to be accustomed to the infamy of dictators who flaunt their crimes as the narrative of 21st Century Socialism.

The narrative is “a literary genre, generally in prose, that consists of narrating a story that can be real or fictitious and can be transmitted in either a written or vocalized way.” The political narrative is “a term used in humanities and political sciences to describe the way the storytelling can present the facts and impact in the comprehension of reality.” “the objective-oriented narratives are an important component of political narratives, given the fact they include the artificiality of telling stories within the political context.”

The narratives of 21st Century Socialism, or Castrochavism, are the permanent counterfeiting of facts to coverup its crimes, attributing the crimes to the victims or disguising them. Dictatorships explain away their crimes with more crime, they also coverup their crimes with more crime and to do that they disseminate narratives with which they take the strategic and communicational initiative.

False accusations with prosecutors and judges that illegally imprison people and force many into exile, despicable laws that institutionalize the violation of human rights, the use of torture, slavery, and human trafficking, limit and suppress private property and the right to work, eliminate freedom of speech, allow extortion, attempts against life. A judicial system that allows all types of trafficking, the establishment of narco-States, the creation and protection of terrorism, conspiracies, the promotion, and sustainment of violent and armed insurgence, are all a brief summary of the actions that 21st Century Socialism, or Castrochavism, has been committing with impunity.

Cuba’s dictatorship flaunts as a narrative of revolution its crimes committed over the past 65 years, crimes that range from; summary executions by firing squad, the permanent violation of human rights, the existence of nearly 1,200 political prisoners, human trafficking, and slavery, to the justification of international terrorism and the nature of narco-State it has turned Cuba into. One of the more recent narratives of the Cuban dictatorship is to accuse Cuban exiles -who fight for the freedom of their homeland- as terrorists. The Cuban dictatorship has made a list of people that once again, are attacked through “the assassination of their reputation.”

The Cuban narrative covers-up all types of crimes against humanity and the atrocious violations of human rights that range from; direct violence aimed at peaceful protesters on 11 July of 2021, imprisonments, torture, exile, extortions, to the sending of troops at the service of Russia’s invasion to Ukraine with a narrative of “internationalists.” Its fake narrative also hides its international interventionism along with the creation of guerrillas, terrorist groups, conspiracies, and a transnational system of narco-States that it presents as the defense of the peoples and a “antiimperialist” narrative.

Venezuela’s dictatorship, the main satellite of Cuba’s expanded dictatorial system, manipulates with the narrative of “disqualification of candidates” to disguise the merciless political persecution, suppression of basic rights, and falsification of electoral results for the benefit of a dictator that has over 80% of popular repudiation. The narrative of defending the “Bolivarian revolution” is the façade for rounding up political prisoners by the “revolving door” system so it can negotiate their exchange for criminals legally prosecuted by international criminal courts, or in exchange for the reduction of sanctions. Internationally, they are in full manipulation of the narrative of “defense of the sovereignty” reactivating the Essequibo conflict that this very same dictatorship had previously resolved.

In Bolivia, with narratives of economic development and national security, the regime has delivered Bolivia’s lithium to Russia and China, without any public bids or competition and has turned the country into a platform for the expansion of Iran’s military interests as its base in the Southern cone. All of this happening while the regime uses the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights that, to this date, does not acknowledge the existence of over 290 political prisoners. The “narrative of democracy” continues to be accepted while this dictatorship through the misuse of the Judicial Branch -the operational branch of its government- has just self-extended in its functions.

In Nicaragua, under the “nationalist narrative” the dictatorship seeks to take ownership of the “Miss Universe Pageant” franchise, reason why it arrested the husband and son of the current owner and now executes a public and international extortion, while it makes the Nicaraguans’ right to have private property disappear, imposing the need for the government’s authorization to buy or to sell.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas