Despots, regardless of ideology or origin, deeply hate their fellow men
14ymedio / Pedro Corzo, Miami, 8 September 2024 — The vast majority of the political prisoners of the castrochavista regimes are young people, sometimes teenagers, who are practically beginning their lives and embrace, with full consciousness, the stanza of the Cuban national anthem that claims: “To live in chains is to live mired in shame and disgrace.” Despots, regardless of ideology or origin, deeply hate their fellow men, but there are two sectors of society that they especially despise: the young and the journalists.
The youth, because they know the willingness to take risks at that stage of life. Young people rarely properly assess danger, and that is probably what makes that period of our existence so magical and unforgettable.
There is a strong tendency to take risks, to defend ideals with sticks and stones, even if their enemies, like the serial killer Ernesto Che Guevara, enjoy the sound of machine guns.
The autocrats of castrochavismo, more than their military peers, like to censor and intimidate journalists and the media
The prisons of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia are full of people sentenced for the honorable crime of justly claiming civil rights for themselves and the country.
In the homeland of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, despot Nicolas Maduro imprisoned around 100 young people between 13 and 17 years old for opposing electoral fraud. These teenagers were then released from prison with severe restrictions on their rights.
Nicaragua is not far behind. According to a report in the newspaper La Prensa, in May of this year, 66 of the 138 political prisoners were between the ages of 15 and 39. Even more tragic is the case of Bolivia, another autocratic state that does not recognize itself as such: its political prisoners, young and old, are barely documented.
However, in Cuba, the o