The tragic paradox of the electoral path towards authoritarianism is that the
assassins of democracy
use
the very institutions
of democracy in gradual, subtle, and even legal ways
to liquidate
it .
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt made it crystal clear.
In their book "How democracies die" they describe the way in which, today, far from military coups or violent assaults on power, countries succumb to different forms of authoritarian drift.
They are not the only analysts to point this out;
there are plenty of works and investigations in this regard, as well as flagrant evidence.
It seems that, unfortunately, Alberto Fernández did not look at any of these reports and remains blind, deaf and mute in the face of the most tangible evidence.
He amply demonstrated it last week, at the CELAC summit in Buenos Aires.
In a new show of support for the dictatorships in the region, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, he said: “All
those who are here have been elected by their peoples
, and their peoples
legitimize them as rulers
.
And therefore, regardless of how each people decides, in diversity we must respect each other and in diversity we must grow together”.
Let's go back to Levitsky and Ziblatt: “Democracies can fail in the hands not only of generals, but of elected leaders, presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that led them to power.
Some of those leaders quickly dismantle democracy, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany.
But, in general, democracies erode slowly, in barely appreciable steps (...) Military coups and other usurpations of power by violent means are rare.
Elections are held regularly in most countries.
At present, the
democratic setback begins at the polls
”.
Fernández warned: "
Democracy
is definitely
at risk in the region
", to, with blinders on, blame "the recalcitrant and fascist right" for putting the institutionality of our peoples at risk."
As if all the antecedents of the three dictatorships that he insists on defending and vindicating -while, for example, the Chilean
Gabriel Boric demands the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua
and free elections in Venezuela-, the true reality was in charge of giving him another setback to the President in the same week of his incomprehensible exaltation.
Michelle Bachelet's successor
as
United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights
, Volker Turk, demanded that Nicolás Maduro release political prisoners and put an end to torture "once and for all",
condemned the extrajudicial executions
"that continue being perpetrated”, urged to “guarantee the civic space” before the pretense of the Venezuelan Parliament to approve a law that criminalizes and threatens to outlaw NGOs.
During Bachelet's administration, it was considered proven that the regime uses
mechanisms of repression
and persecution
similar to those of the dictatorships of the 70s
, with arbitrary arrests of opponents and dissidents,
torture
, sexual harassment,
murders
and all kinds of human rights violations.
More than 7 million Venezuelans have already left that “paradise”.
Surely Fernández was still watching another channel when
thirty people tried to escape from another “paradise”, the
Cuban
governed by Miguel Díaz-Canel, with a one-party regime
.
On board a precarious boat, they were shipwrecked in their desperate flight to the United States:
there were five dead and twelve missing.
Just after the CELAC summit, fifteen people who participated in the July 2021 protests on the island, the largest against the Cuban regime in decades, quelled with a brutal repression and mass incarceration.
There are 55 boys between the ages of 16 and 17 subjected to criminal proceedings for having demonstrated on that date.
The good news in the "democratic regimes" celebrated by Fernández does not end there: last week the
restriction of the entry of photographic or video cameras
to tourists visiting
Nicaragua
was reported .
Those who wish to bring their camera will have to have the endorsement of the National Cinematheque, directed by Idania Castillo, a member of the presidential family.
It is not necessary to be very astute to understand that the measure is a new attempt to hinder the work of journalists, photographers and documentary filmmakers in the country.
It is clear that the Ortega-Murillo duo does not want to share the benefits of the Nicaraguan reality with the rest of the world.
It is worth remembering that before the last "presidential elections" won by the married couple - the fourth consecutive term for Ortega - the seven main opponents were imprisoned without cause, as well as political leaders, ex-guerrilla companions of Daniel Ortega in the fight against the Somoza dictatorship, and businessmen.
But the regime is surpassing itself day by day: the first sentence against the family of an exiled politician, Javier Alvarez Zamora, has just been announced.
Refusing to return to be imprisoned,
they arrested the woman, the daughter and the son-in-law
: they gave eight years in prison for the women and ten years for the man.
Glorifying three dictatorships is one more link, certainly one of the most serious, in the chain of nonsense that the government of Alberto Fernández carries out on a daily basis: the Minister of the Interior, Wado de Pedro,
reproaching the President in public for
not having codes for not having been summoned to a meeting with Lula.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, calling
Uruguay "little brother"
, from whom we should learn so many things, respect for the institutional framework, harmonious coexistence of government supporters and opponents, lessons in civility, among others.
The country demanding support from the UN in its attack against the Court.
Fernández speaking of “
self-constructed inflation
”.
Lincoln didn't say it as is commonly believed, but it's the same: "You can fool all the people some of the time and some people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."
look too
Uruguay leads in economic progress and social justice
look too
The mistakes that Cristina accumulates