The real help to the victims of dictatorships is to recover democracy

By: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín - 11/03/2023

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Faced with the uprooting of political prisoners and stripping them off their citizenship by Nicaragua’s dictatorship, many governments offer shelter and citizenship to the victims who, however, do not have the means to survive outside of their homeland. With a display of apparent great solidarity and propaganda, democratic leaders and governments limit themselves to treat the negative effects of these and other crimes committed by dictatorships from; Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, but do not address the core problem which is the existence of dictatorships, a problem that demands the recovery of democracy as the only genuine real help.

The uprooting and stripping of their nationality while they are kept imprisoned, tortured, and while others are criminally sentenced is “State-terrorism” a practice through which Nicaragua’s dictatorship wields power indefinitely and one that pretends to keep Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo and the transnational organized crime group that is part of their dictatorship to remain unpunished. This is the common and uniform methodology of 21st Century Socialism, or Castrochavism’s dictatorships who, under the leadership of Cuba, oppress and threaten the nations of the Americas.

The international community, political and civic leaders, governments, States, and organizations appear to have become accustomed and unaffected by reports of the existence of; political prisoners and exiles, forcible and manipulated migrations, prevaricated legal proceedings that are nothing more than lynchings, reports and proof of torture and other heinous crimes that are perpetrated by dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. To date, it has been certified there are 1,076 political prisoners in Cuba, nearly 300 in Venezuela, over 230 in Bolivia, and over 50 -excluding the 222 recently uprooted- in Nicaragua.

For dictatorships, along with the fear they instill to continue wielding power, political prisoners are equity-capital and tokens for negotiations that are used and are exchanged in order to obtain internal benefits or receive international concessions. There is no dictatorship without political prisoners and there are no prisoners who are not, or have not, been tortured either physically or psychologically. Political prisoners, as dictatorships’ liquidity assets, are truly victims of kidnapping and the betterment or change of their condition is the result of negotiations with organized crime.

This is why dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, have created and manage a “revolving door” system that has been described by the Venezuelan Criminal Forum as “a situation in which while some political prisoners are liberated at the same time, or shortly thereafter, others are imprisoned so the number of political prisoners is kept constant.”

Uprooting means “the act or effect of expelling someone from a territory.” It is defined as that “punishment consisting of banishing someone from a determined territory or place so that the person getting punished lives, either permanently or temporarily, outside of it.” Article 7.1(d) of the Statute of Rome identifies uprooting as a “Crime Against Humanity.” To banish a person is “to deport someone, generally to a foreign country and confine that person there, due to political reasons or punishment.” It is a forcible and violent act.

Uprooting, deporting, or exiling someone is a crime against humanity that causes extraordinary suffering to the victims of such punishment because it forces that person to abandon his/her house, land, family, estate, employment, way of life, relationships, and surroundings. The emotional harm it inflicts is irreparable, the political damage is immediate and the financial punishment is extraordinary due to the loss of the victim’s possessions in his/her natural place of life, however large or small these may be and the fact that he/she will face conditions of helplessness in the place where he/she must survive.

The change from being a political prisoner to being uprooted or exiled can be viewed as a relative betterment, but not as being free. Freedom, is “the natural empowerment that a human being has to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint, or not to act, reason why everyone is responsible and held accountable.” In a democracy, freedom is “the right of superior value that ensures the free determination of the people.” This is why someone who has been deported or exiled, is not free.

To help those who; have been uprooted, stripped off their nationality and continue to be persecuted, to have an Identification Card or to contribute for them to have travelling documents, or to have a place where they can stay, by perhaps even granting them the nationality of another country, are political acts -important and urgent- that address the symptoms and provide relief to the violation of human rights, but they are not the solution neither for the victims, nor for the society from which these victims are forcibly uprooted.

The real help and the genuine effective fulfillment of international obligations consists of addressing the cause and not only he symptoms. The cause are the transnational organized crime’s dictatorships, established as narco-States who, under the leadership of Cuba, control and impose their practice of State-terrorism in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. Those who are political prisoners, those who were uprooted, and the oppressed peoples will recover their freedom only when they recover democracy in their countries where they can live with dignity and without fear.

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

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».