Fear of governing while respecting the law is a stigma of 21st-century socialism in democratic governments in Latin America

By: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín - 15/06/2026

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The attack on democracy and in many cases its destruction, the judicial persecution and character assassination of democratic leaders, and the supplanting of politics by organized crime, perpetrated by 21st-century socialism or Castro-Chavismo in Latin America, leaves societies in crisis and governments that, marked by history as restoring democracy, turn out to be weak, do not take power, do not achieve governability, and present the stigma of "fear of governing by fulfilling and enforcing the law."

“Access to power and its exercise subject to the rule of law” is an essential element of democracy, as established in Article 3 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which is binding on all countries of the Americas. The rule of law means that “every decision of government bodies must be subject to the law and guided by absolute respect for rights.” This principle aims to “create an environment of absolute respect for human beings and public order.”

Castro-Chavismo is the expansion of Fidel Castro's Cuban model using Venezuelan oil resources embezzled by Hugo Chávez, who sustained the Cuban dictatorship and transformed Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador into dictatorships. He also achieved near-total control of Latin America by promoting and supporting subservient or para-dictatorial presidents and governments, of which Lula da Silva in Brazil, Sheinbaum in Mexico, and Petro in Colombia remain today (the Kirchners in Argentina, Bachelet and Boric in Chile, Toledo in Peru, Lugo in Paraguay, Castro in Honduras, and others also shared this characteristic).

In the dictatorial regimes of Castro-Chavismo in Latin America—in Cuba with Castro and Díaz-Canel, in Venezuela with Chávez, Maduro, and Rodríguez, in Nicaragua with Ortega and Murillo, and in Bolivia with Morales and Arce—the rule of law was supplanted by state terrorism. Respect for the law, which protects human beings and public order, was replaced by the commission of crimes by the government to instill fear in the population and thus achieve subservient behavior that would otherwise be impossible.

State terrorism was and is exercised in the Castro-Chavista dictatorships with total control of the justice system, the judicialization of political persecution, the operation of "hitman prosecutors" and "executioner judges", the imposition of "infamous laws" that violate human rights instead of protecting them, the liquidation of the free press and a long etcetera that produced political prisoners, physical and character assassinations, exile and submission.

Castro-Chavismo has lost power in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and more, but in many of these countries, it has not relinquished power because it retains it through the constitutions it supplanted, the infamous laws it imposed, the prosecutors and judges who still operate, and the institutions it controls. The reality in each country varies in its level of progress or resistance, but dismantling the narco-states and restoring democratic institutions is a difficult task that remains either pending or is still underway. The geopolitical shift manifested in the capture of dictator Maduro, the ongoing ultimatum to the Cuban dictatorship, Operation Southern Spear, and Operation Shield of the Americas facilitates this task.

Having lost the government, and in order to retain power, Castro-Chavismo wields violence. To this end, it employs means such as unions, federations, labor federations, social movements, grassroots organizations, media outlets, and organizations that, in reality, conceal criminal operations against the human rights of the people and against the stability of the government.

Furthermore, they retain parliamentary representation, which they use to obstruct necessary change, undermine the government, negotiate impunity, and uphold their systems that violate human rights and fundamental freedoms. These "functional opposition" figures, who were complicit in the charade of a nonexistent democracy when Castro-Chavismo held power, are now part of the resistance because they are complicit in the crimes that require impunity.

In this objective reality, we have seen and continue to see presidents and governments in Latin America stigmatized by the "fear of governing by upholding and enforcing the law" because they do not change the dictatorial system, because they adopt the strategy of gradualism, which is their own slow demise, because they do not form strong governments of national unity with the clear objective of restoring the elements of democracy and separating crime from politics in order to recover the economy of the people, because they believe that everything can be negotiated, including the human rights of citizens—whom they are obligated to protect—who are victims of crimes.

There is no restoration of democracy, no end to the infamous laws, no impunity, and no separation of crime from politics with presidents who prefer to cling to power rather than take office and restore the rule of law. The fear of being accused, persecuted, having their reputations destroyed, imprisoned, or exiled—as happened to notable defenders of freedom and democracy—paralyzes some Latin American leaders. This is the stigma of the criminal system of 21st-century socialism that urgently needs to be overcome.

*Lawyer and political scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy

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