Pope Leo XIV is the hope of liberation for peoples under dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.

By: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín - 11/05/2025

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A notable change for the freedom of the peoples of the Americas occurred with the arrival of Pope Leo XIV, an American born in the United States who lived his missionary and pastoral life in Peru, where he assumed Peruvian nationality. Robert Francis Prevost, the American or Peruvian "Father Bob," represents the fusion of American cultures that unites the strengths of the world's most important democracy and Latin American sentiments. His life presents him as a hope of liberation for the peoples subjugated by dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.

In my essay “Pope Francis and the dictatorships of 21st-century socialism” (Infobae, August 21, 2022) or “Francis, the Pope of the dictatorships of 21st-century socialism” (Diario Las Américas, August 22, 2022), I state that “The Pope has the triple power of Pastor of the Catholic Church, Supreme Pontiff of the Church, and head of the Vatican State. The faith of millions of Catholics makes the Pastor the supreme power over those ordained and faithful to the Pontiff, and he is the absolute monarch of the Vatican. The Pope makes politics, since he governs public affairs of global scope, and in that context, his relationship, actions, and omissions with the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua question Francis as the Pope of the dictatorships of 21st-century socialism.”

After recalling some concrete actions of Pope Francis regarding Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, the analysis concludes by presenting: "Sin of Omission? In the realm of faith and of the Pastor. Abandonment of his own in protecting the Church as Pontiff. Political actions protecting dictatorships as head of the Vatican State."

On the subject of dictators and dictatorships, Pope Francis was very different and even contrary to the saintly Pope John Paul II, “acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century, especially for being one of the main symbols of anti-communism and for his fight against the spread of Marxism in places like Latin America, where he fought the movement known as liberation theology, and for his decisive role in ending communist dictatorships in his native Poland and, ultimately, throughout Europe.”

Pope Leo XIV, in his first presentation before the College of Cardinals, said that for taking the name of Leo “there are several reasons, but the main one is because Leo XIII, with the historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution”… and that the world is experiencing a new revolution with artificial intelligence, that “contemporary challenges surrounding human dignity, justice and work require that the Church offer its heritage of social doctrine as a response.”

Renum Novarum, from the Latin “of new things,” was published by Leo XIII on May 15, 1891, under the title “De Conditione Opificum” (On the Condition of Workers). The encyclical on which Leo XIV based the beginning of his papacy defends workers, stating, “Time has insensibly handed over workers, isolated and defenseless, to the inhumanity of employers and the unbridled greed of competitors”; affirming that “they must not consider the worker as a slave; they must respect the dignity of the person and the nobility that the Christian character adds to that person.”

Regarding socialism, Rerum Novarum says: "By pretending that the property of individuals should pass to the community, socialists aggravate the condition of the workers, because, by taking away their right to freely dispose of their wages, they deprive them of all hope of being able to improve their economic situation and obtain greater benefits." He defends private property as a natural right: "Since man is the only animal endowed with intelligence, he must necessarily be granted the faculty, not only to use present things, like other animals, but also to possess them with a stable and perpetual right." "The foundation and reason for the division of goods and private property are found in the same natural law."

Renum Novarum attacked and halted the crisis of "de-Christianization in a period when the Church's credibility was diminishing among the popular sectors of Christianity and even among the clergy." History notes that it "designed a strategy that helped bridge the crisis facing the Church, and the doctrinal and practical restructuring it provoked shaped the new image of the Catholic Church today."

Today, the people of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia suffer worse social, economic, and human conditions than those defended by Rerum Novarum. There is poverty and misery, with hundreds of political prisoners and millions forced into exile, manipulated as an instrument of hybrid warfare against democracies; they suffer persecution and torture through state terrorism; the Cuban regime traffics doctors and slave personnel with the complicity of governments and businessmen who pay the dictatorship; they are narco-states, inducing their youth to commit crime and increasing domestic drug use...and more; the victims of dictatorships have been dehumanized and live in defenselessness.

In the peoples subjugated by the dictatorships of 21st-century socialism, "human dignity, justice, and work require the Church to offer its heritage of social doctrine in response. The hope for freedom of these peoples turns to Leo XIV.

*Lawyer and Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy

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