Elements of a
dictatorship
By: Cristiana
Guevara-Mena
In our country, throughout history, we have
been able to perceive that almost every other person that has reached the
Presidency of the Republic has been considered the “sanctified,” “the chosen
one”, and the only one capable of being in that position. It’s very common to
see in these individuals demonstrations of a sickening will of perpetuation in
power to the point that it becomes, besides a dementia and obsessive vice, the
most important sickness in their lives, without taking into account the
negative human and social effects that this sickness conveys. Lastly, they
forget about the people that helped them get to the top and become President.
Many of those who have reached power, either by
elections or by “coups d‘etat,” still suffer from the delusion of feeling
indispensable to the national territory. That is, that without them and their
correct direction, the country will sink between the two oceans; that the power
belongs only to them, by right of inheritance or by their own intelligence, and
that this power endows them with the right to impose their will upon others
without the least idea or interest that the power represents a service, a
responsibility, and an obligation to the people.
Unfortunately, the origin of dictatorship lies
not only in the will of the dictator, but also in the will of those who he says
he represents, whom he asphyxiates with advertised lies, blackmail, open or
hidden threats, and the closing of opportunities to those who want to
contradict the wishes of he that believes himself, as well as his family, close
friends, and personnel, to be “sanctified.”
Despite the democratic disguise, what
characterizes dictatorship is the triumph of the arbitrary act o a person over
the due respect to the sense of the law, to which we should all be equal
without any kind of consideration. We must understand that XXI century
dictatorship, is no longer the violent threat of execution by firing squad or
prison that existed during the somocista era, but the gradual reduction of
individual liberties through the exclusion of jobs, police and fiscal
terrorism, judicial threats and designation in which process the minimum
guarantee of equity of shared values of democracy and justice are nonexistent.
Those who want to impose a dictatorship
dedicate themselves to destroying, little by little, in a progressive and
scientific form, the opposition parties, through the persons of their best
representatives. Using threats, blackmail, or praise, they transform these
persons into obedient, submissive, and buyable beings for the service of the
interests of power.
To the foreigner, modern dictatorship is
disguised with press self-censorship, and with the massive presence of
officialist media, that shows an almost turned-off, scandalized opposition. In
some occasions, independent international organisms without any links with the
local power, publish numbers and real facts according to reality. In most
cases, they are publications of organisms that need to justify their existence
in the country, for which they are willing to ally themselves with the powers
that be, and in turn publish fake facts that hide a sad reality. These last
ones present the nation as a country in development, that reduces poverty, and
that is magically solving all the inner problems of the country, putting their
own credibility at risk and not caring about the democratic destiny of the
nation where they are established.
How many times have the Nicaraguans been
witnesses and victims of Presidents, either from the left or the right, that
intended to be in power forever at the expense of a humiliated and impoverished
people without education, that in these last few years have started to wake
up? What conclusions should we make from
such a situation? We must keep in mind two things: Firstly, that when a country
is suffering a dictatorship, it has an immense need of a promising change in
order to improve, that comes from believable people, without black histories,
with honesty and proven talent. Secondly, that between this division of the
parties, a real organized force does not exist yet, or worse still, only one
exists: a disperse, confused, fearful
people in need, who hope to find solutions to their daily problems. If the
people are the ones that choose their leaders, they must also ensure that they are the one that can change who
their leaders are, in any way possible.
