Elements of a dictatorship

http://www.nicaraguadispatch.com/news/2013/02/recognizing-the-trappings-of-dictatorship/6684

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.