Palermo Convention against transnational organized crime, a law for the liberation of the peoples

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) When transnational organized crime takes-over a government, subjecting peoples into a situation of helplessness through crimes with which it remains in power and democratic countries do not meet their obligations to end those dictatorships, civil resistance, and solidarity for the defense of human rights and peace have, in the “United Nations (UN) “Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime” or Palermo Convention, a suitable tool to prosecute and end the disgrace.

The U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, or Palermo Convention, was adopted in 2000 and entered into force on 29 September of 2003. Annex 1 establishes “The purpose of this Convention is to promote cooperation to prevent and combat transnational organized crime more effectively” and defines as “an organized criminal group… a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offenses established in accordance with this Convention, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit.”

The scope of the convention’s application, established in Article 3 mandates “This Convention shall apply, except as otherwise stated herein, to the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of serious crime” as defined in article 2b of this Convention; “Serious crime shall mean conduct constituting an offense punishable by a maximum deprivation of liberty of at least four years or a more serious penalty where the offense is transnational in nature and involves an organized criminal group… An offense is transnational in nature if: (a) It is committed in more than one State; (b) It is committed in one State but a substantial part of its preparation, planning, direction, or control takes place in another State; (c) It is committed in one State but involves an organized criminal group that engages in criminal activities in more than one State; or (d) It is committed in one State but has substantial effects in another State.

Over 180 States have ratified the Convention, including the 35 States of the Americas. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is responsible for its implementation, the States are responsible for its application, and the citizenry and institutions have the right to use it before national authorities through their requests for investigations, law suits or legal complaints before prosecutors or judges. The Palermo Convention is part of the obligatory legal norms in existence to protect the human rights of the person facing Transnational Organized Crime.

Groups that wield power in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, directed by dictators Castro/Diaz-Canel, Maduro, Arce/Morales, and Ortega/Murillo respectively, are included in the definition of “criminal group” of the Palermo Convention and they commit daily “serious crime” such as; undue detainments, suppression of freedoms, falsifications, false allegations, torture, extortion, subjection into slavery, and an endless list of crime against freedom, against people, against the estate, and against humanity that include terrorism and narcotics’ trafficking. These are “transnational crimes” because they have “substantial effects in another State” as the forced migration of millions of Cubans and Venezuelans due to hunger, insecurity, persecution, and more.

The “criminal groups” that control Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua are directed from Cuba and comprise the so-called “21st Century Socialism” or “Castrochavism” as the alibi to coverup their crime as political actions when, the objective reality coupled with ample proof, prove, and show the flagrant commission of “serious crimes with substantial effects in other States.”

The Palermo Convention was ratified by; Cuba on 9 February of 2007, Venezuela on 13 May of 2002, Bolivia on 10 October of 2005, Nicaragua on 9 September of 2002 and is -therefore- lawfully applicable since those dates to legally denounce and condemn criminals who wield power by committing crime in those countries as part of their oppressive system that is “State terrorism.”

This international and internal legal framework empowers prosecutors and tribunals from any country that is part of the Palermo Convention in which there are substantial effects from crimes committed by “criminal groups” from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, to assume legal jurisdiction, prosecute, and sentence dictators and their accomplices. Accomplices that are repressors, members of the dictatorial judicial system, falsifiers of rigged electoral charades, corrupted government officials and members of their military and police security groups, propagandists, apologists, and more.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas