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Chilean President Gabriel Boric saved the Ibero-American Summit from irrelevance by voicing his opinion on the course taken by the Nicaraguan regime. And while the rest of his colleagues agonized over his words, the president breathed fighting spirit into a meeting destined for oblivion. And, of course, he made a painful point about the complicity of the countries of the region with the processes of democratic destruction that are flourishing everywhere.
In a way, Boric fulfilled exactly the same role as the little boy who shouted “the emperor is naked!” And the rest of those present, except Lacalle Pou, knew for the first time and publicly that they are all naked. Because they have failed in the fundamental duty of every democratic leader: to represent the sovereign. And it happens that the sovereigns of the continent repudiate and reject the totalitarianisms of the 21st century.
It is enough to read the reports of the main pollsters and the measurements of Latino Barómetro to realize that the peoples of Latin America wish to live in a democracy and that their current distancing is not due to a systemic repudiation, but rather a circumstantial one, which expresses the immense discontent of populations that do not see in the leadership of the continent the capacity to lead them to the Eden of economic stability and political freedoms.
Hence, Boric’s intervention complaining to his fellow destiny partners about the lack of attention to the distressing problem of the democratic destruction being carried out by the Ortega-Murillo couple in Nicaragua was speaking for the sovereigns of the continent.
In this context, the other issue not touched by Boric stood out silently: the possible implosion of the Venezuelan regime. This topic was the invisible and uncomfortable passenger of the summit. That nation that has endured over two decades the greatest plundering of public assets ever carried out in the Americas, the most sinister wave of crimes against humanity and the largest emigration in the history of the region is now witnessing a struggle for power by its henchmen.
In this case, the silence is understandable. The Venezuelan regime is the only one totally engulfed by transnational organized crime. Consequently, any international statement against it is answered with the dispatch of criminal gangs financed by the illicit trades (drugs, people, minerals, and protected species) creating chaos. Under not-very encouraging world economic horizons and worse geopolitical scenarios, most Latin American leaders prefer not to unleash the wrath of the Venezuelan regime.
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But Boric’s statement will end up involving Venezuela because, like the boy in the story, Boric has shown the nakedness of the continent in its protection of human rights and freedom by denouncing a similar regime. And it will no longer be possible for his colleagues to look in any other direction than the defense of democracy.
This article is part of an agreement between El American and the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.
Beatrice Rangel es directora del Interamerican Institute for Democracy, Managing Director de AMLA Consulting, responsable de negociar e implementar estrategias y adquisiciones de inversión corporativas en América Latina y el Caribe. Exmiembro ejecutivo de Wharton School de la Universidad de Pennsylvania // Beatrice Rangel is Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy, Managing Director of AMLA Consulting, responsible for negotiating and implementing corporate investment strategies and acquisitions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Former Executive Fellow of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.