Thou shalt not blaspheme! – 03/10/2023 – Demetrio Magnoli

“Metaphorically speaking, Nicaragua seems like a distant little church where there is a priest who commits excesses and whom everyone disapproves of. Venezuela resembles an archdiocese of medium importance whose functioning is worthy of certain criticism. Cuba… is the Vatican, whose sanctity and dogma are unquestionable.”

The description of the attitudes of the Latin American left, published on the website 1948 – Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is by the Cuban political scientist Armando Chaguaceda. It helps to understand both the Lula government’s belated distancing from the Ortega dictatorship and its incomplete nature.

Ortega, the parish priest, long ago renounced “socialism”. His regime maintained close ties with the IMF, surrounded himself with a courtship of smart businessmen and the dictator himself allied himself with Capitol Ministries, an American political-evangelical organization that entered Brazil through Bolsonaro. The PSOL has given up on the Nicaraguan regime – but, of course, it continues to pray at the altar of the tropical Vatican. The PT, on the other hand, operates at a different pace, refusing to break with the Nicaraguan tyrant.

Ortega knows no limits. His most recent move, stripping more than 300 opponents of their nationality, including several former comrades-in-arms of the Nicaraguan Revolution, is a direct violation of the 1948 Declaration, which prohibits converting citizens into stateless persons. The extreme act provoked a wave of indignation, expressed in the document from 54 countries that calls for “maximum pressure” on the regime. Chilean Boric offered citizenship to Nicaraguan opponents, a gesture imitated by Argentine Fernández and Colombian Petro.

There are relevant differences. Boric personifies a left that has learned the value of democracy: he even uses the word dictatorship to define Castro’s Vatican. Fernández and Petro modulate their sentences according to the theological hierarchy of the left. For them, Cuba is an absolute exception: the earthly coagulation of a mythical ideal. For this reason, their break with Ortega does not imply a general repudiation of left-wing authoritarianism.

They are two different logics. Boric maintains coherence with the principle that dictatorships of the right or left are equally repulsive. Fernández and Petro are guided by another principle: adherence to “socialism”, understood as state control of the economy and staunch anti-Americanism. Left-wing dictatorships faithful to dogma are partners in a historic journey – and therefore remain immune to criticism. Democracy, in this light, is far less valuable than ideology.

In theory, the PT would fit into this second logic. A few days ago, PT leader Alberto Cantalice described Ortega, Maduro and Díaz-Canel as dictators, was scolded by party bureaucrats and knelt in the corn, apologizing for the sacrilegious inclusion of Cuba in the sentence. Lula, however, falters even over the infamous village priest.

“Bolsonaro is a thousand times worse than Ortega”, pontificated Lula in the electoral campaign, making an insensible comparison between a tyrant who commands a bloodthirsty dictatorship and an authoritarian president besieged by democratic institutions. Now, Brazil has rejected the precise text of the 54 countries and, instead of immediately offering citizenship to the opponents, it has merely declared itself willing to receive them as stateless refugees. Worse: at the UN Human Rights Council, he tries to articulate a toothless resolution, in order to avoid condemnation of the Nicaraguan state barbarism.

Lula obeys a third logic: pragmatic fidelity to Havana’s fundamental interests. As Cuba protects the allied tyrants under any circumstances, Itamaraty seeks “constructive” ways to prevent Ortega’s isolation. To deviate from the Vatican’s “fair line” is, after all, unforgivable blasphemy.

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