Les Misérables

By: Pedro Corzo - 13/07/2025

Guest columnist.
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If there's one adjective that perfectly fits the servants of dictatorships, regardless of their color, it's the title of this novel by Victor Hugo, which has forever guaranteed him a prominent place in world literature for his solid defense of the persecuted and merciless condemnation of henchmen.

The wretched, seduced by an ideology, leadership, or simply their predatory instincts, don't question what they do. They act based on their criminal tendencies or interests, which leads them to victimize those who don't share their iniquities.

It's worth noting that many of these scoundrels don't consider themselves such because they fail to realize that simply serving a despot makes them a victimizer. Their choice leads them to participate in a cycle of terror that intensifies based on the perversity of each individual.

It is evident that every society has individuals prone to the most horrendous acts, including democracies, although dictatorships, regardless of the type, are undoubtedly more likely to produce unscrupulous individuals ready to serve in the most despicable actions.

On the other hand, there are those who behave with indifference toward wrongdoing, individuals about whom Jose Martí wrote, "Man does not have the freedom to look on impassively at the slavery and dishonor of man, nor at the efforts that men make for their freedom and honor." These people, through their indifference to the victims, also become complicit in the abuses they witness.

In all fairness, the social control that regimes of power exercise over their citizens is so vast and profound that it involves almost all citizens, particularly involving the majority of those who serve in government spheres in official cruelty, even when they are not directly part of the repressive structure.

All this becomes even more complicated when one suffers from a totalitarian system like Cuba's, a form that does not allow for even the slightest shred of social, economic, and political independence. Totalitarianism means ignorance of the duties and prerogatives of citizens, a total disregard for the rights of others, which does not exempt the perpetrator from responsibility for any abuses he or she may have committed.

For years, we have witnessed henchmen of Cuban totalitarianism who, upon leaving the island, prepare to serve Fidel Castro's chosen enemy, the United States, sometimes taking the most extreme positions, thus attempting to erase its vile acts.

This situation is repeated with what are currently classified as Castro-Chavista regimes: Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Cuba is the country that has produced the most renegades, despite the fact that its mandate has lasted 66 years.

The deserters from Castroism are not the health professionals who abandon the dictatorship's so-called missions, but the officials and oppressors who, in recent times with the accentuation of poverty and the structural deterioration of the system, have decided to leave servility behind and leave for the enemy's home.

Judges and government bureaucrats from various areas, whose positions required them to act as direct accomplices in repressive actions or who caused harm and damage to the victims, are attempting to dismiss their commitments to Castroism as if such actions would wash away their sins.

However, we can be sure that more than one perpetrator has to take refuge, to clear his conscience and show moral transparency to his family, claiming that he always did his duty or that he was simply following orders based on the famous excuse of "due obedience."

These individuals should not be granted refuge in any democratic country, but rather should be widely denounced for their crimes, placed on a public list that identifies them as predators and enemies of democracy for having served the autocrats who have done so much harm in our countries, as a warning to predators that crime does pay. So, perhaps, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Bolivians, and Cubans with the spirit of executioners, might not act as such.

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