Articles and opinion columns by Latin American analysts who take an unwavering stand for freedom, including members and directors of the IID.
(FIRMAS PRESS) There was even talk of a “model.” Chile was a very positive thing that happened to Latin America for many years. From the 1980s until October 18, 2019, 35 or 40 years passed in which, apparently, an exhausting discussion had ended: whether a nation depended on the State to achieve development, or whether…
Renown journalist and scholar Nicholas Lemann asks in his latest book “American Democracy” five fundamental questions about our democracy that have yet to be fully answered. One of his questions is particularly thought-provoking in today’s sociopolitical setting: What is the government for? This is a question we answer indirectly with our political affiliations as Democrats,…
One of the most despicable arrangements to retain power featuring “State-sponsored terrorism” is to unjustifiably imprison human beings who ask for freedom. Dictatorships use political prisoners to instill fear in the population, forcing them not to fight for their human rights and remain subjected and defenseless by fear. There are political prisoners in Cuba, Venezuela,…
The July 11 protests reflect the misery in which Cubans live. And it was not even a particular region of the island. As Carla Gloria Colomé Santiago explains, in a sensational article published in El Estornudo, the protests occurred in 62 different places, although they arose in San Antonio de los Baños, a town located…
The Summit for Democracy organized by the president of the United States, the International Seminar with Mario Vargas Llosa, the Organization of American States, and the current situational awareness analyses, coincide those democracies are threatened by authoritarianism. The permanent destabilization of democracies in the Americas comes from Cuba’s dictatorship spread into Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua,…
In an August 1815 letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams reminisced about the American Revolution: “What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People…” Adams goes on to wonder about…
On December 19, 2021, there will be elections in Chile. José Antonio Kast, 55, JAK for short, a lawyer representing the right, and Gabriel Boric (pronounced Borich in Croatian) on the left will face each other for the presidency. Boric, only 35 years old, doesn’t have a university degree, because he stopped studying law. Who…
When the Republic of Mexico was restored, Benito Juarez said in 1867 “. . . Between individuals, as between nations, peace means respect for the rights of others” summing up the reality of those nations that fight for their freedom. The expansion of Cuba’s dictatorship in the 21st century, imposing its model and control in…
The Inter-American Institute for Democracy (IID) continues with its initiative to alert the public in the United States and Latin America about new threats to freedom and security from authoritarianism and organized crime in the Western Hemisphere. The initiative aims to educate U.S. policy-makers and opinion-leaders about the current threats to the democratic system in…
It is like the “never-ending story.” A circular nightmare. Havana, summer of 1959. I remember a person who was very sure that Us President Ike Eisenhower, in the middle of the Cold War, “would never allow the consolidation of a Soviet base 90 miles off the coast of the United States.” The person was a…
