Former Ibero-American presidents warn of “criminalization of democratic leadership” by radical left

The Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), a group of former presidents of Ibero-American countries, have expressed concern over what they see as aprocess of hijacking of democratic language by the anti-democratic radical left”.

In a statement titled “Declaration on the Criminalization of Democratic Leadership”, they alerted “international public opinion to the process of hijacking democratic language by the anti-democratic radical left that still exists in the region after the fall of the Cortina de Iron years ago “.

“The deliberate aim is to empty the content of the experience of democracy by prostrating its essential elements., using them to gain power and maintain it unlike alternation in its exercise and thus, through constitutional forms, dismantle the rule of law and the same democratic guarantees of human rights ”, details the signed press release by 18 former presidents.

The statement also maintains that “in the same order, they preach a so-called hybrid war or legal war, which would be part of this (lawfare), to indicate that they were victims of the said disturbing practice; but what, rather, It is currently being implemented by governments allied with this anti-democratic left in order to criminalize the opposition which authentically defends the values ​​of democracy and freedom.. The imprisonment and systematic criminalization of political and social leaders who openly disagree with the regimes in Cuba and its colonies in Venezuela and Nicaragua are instructive in this regard. “

The group of former leaders denounces the violence and repression of the Cuban dictatorship against the hundreds of people who demonstrated on the island on July 11, where 700 Cubans were prosecuted. They also repudiate the arrests of the five presidential candidates in Nicaragua, which they wrongly accuse of foreign interference and call for alleged military interventions.

“In Venezuela, after the simulation of a new attempt at dialogue in the midst of repression and prolonged violence in the context of a serious humanitarian crisis caused by his regime, he opts for the persecution of interim president Juan Guaidó and the imprisonment of the deputy Freddy Guevara., one of the leaders promoting the aforementioned dialogue as part of a national salvation agreement, ”the statement said.

And he adds: “In Bolivia, after a process of constitutional succession endorsed and recognized by the Organization of American States, the UN, the European Union, China and Russia, after the resignation of then-President Evo Morales, his new authorities turn the tale upside down. , accuse the independent media, persecute those who prevented the aforementioned incident from undermining the democratic viability of Bolivia, and now the former presidents who ensured this transition are being prosecuted. At the same time, an attempt is made to manipulate this affair to persecute, with the help of the current Argentine government, former President Mauricio Macri, whom his opponents of the undemocratic left have targeted and opened legal proceedings without real support. or for clearly political differences”.

In the letter, they warn that what happened in Bolivia, after Arce’s victory and the accusations against Macri, demonstrates a hybrid and legal war “devised by the undemocratic far left indicated in the Americas”. And they call on judges and prosecutors to work independently because “ultimately the fate of democratic freedoms is in their hands.”

“IDEA will continue to serve the truth and condemn the regimes of lies, for this is the substantial ethical value of democracy, the rule of law and the effective enforcement of human rights.», He concludes.

KEEP READING: