Dictatorial Cooperation on Denationalization of “Traitors”
The trend of depriving political opponents and human rights defenders of citizenship or nationality demonstrates that collaboration between the region’s autocracies is ongoing.
By Raudiel F. Peña Barrios (lationamericas21)
HAVANA TIMES – The links that autocracies sustain and how this affects the human rights of those who live in them are sometimes underestimated. However, empirical evidence confirms that autocratic regimes collaborate with each other and that this collaboration is vital for their permanence over time and the control of civil society organizations and the political opposition. An example of this is how Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela support each other and, at the same time, learn from the mechanisms used in each country to ensure control of power.
Although it is often thought that the Nicaraguan and Venezuelan regimes learn from the Cuban regime what allows them to close themselves off because the Cuban model represents the most closed autocracy in the region, the process is a two-way street. In this sense, the most recent example is the adoption of laws that deprive opponents and human rights activists of political and civil rights. This practice was implemented before in regimes such as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, but the first to develop it legally in the Latin American autocratic troika was Nicaragua.
Denationalization as a form of international repression has several consequences. By using this tactic without facing tangible repercussions, autocracies set a precedent that can be imitated by other governments. This erodes fundamental principles of human rights and international law and promotes impunity. The inaction of the international community allows these practices to continue and spread, affecting individuals and human rights protection systems. Latin American dictatorships are aware of this and exploit it to their advantage.
On January 19, 2024, it became known that in Nicaragua a constitutional reform was approved that allows depriving Nicaraguans convicted of “treason”, a legal figure used to persecute opponents and critics of the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, of their nationality. Through this reform, it was established that the acquisition, loss and recovery of nationality will be regulated by law, but traitors to the homeland lose the status of Nicaraguan nationals.
This provision was previously approved in first instance on February 9, 2023, the same day in which 222 political prisoners, among them seven presidential candidates, were released from jail and expelled to the United States, after being sanctioned for “treason to the homeland”. A day later, the Court of Appeals of Managua ordered the withdrawal of the nationality of these Nicaraguan citizens, based on a “special law regulating the loss of Nicaraguan nationality”, also approved on February 10, 2023..
In addition to losing their nationality, the 222 former political prisoners were disqualified for life from holding public office or elected office and had their rights as citizens suspended. On February 15, 2023, another 95 people, among them writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, and former guerrilla commander Luis Carrión, were also stripped of their nationality, after being charged with “treason” without prior trial.
For its part, Cuba passed a Citizenship Law in July 2024 which empowers the president to strip citizenship by decree to those who enlist in “any type of armed organization with the aim of attacking the country or its citizens” and to those who carry out “acts contrary to the high political, economic and social interests” of the island. The affected person must reside outside the country or have another nationality, although exceptions are contemplated for serious reasons. In these cases, the deprivation of Cuban citizenship may generate a situation of statelessness.
Like the Nicaraguan law, the Cuban law seeks to control political opponents and activists, as it constitutes an additional tool to repress them outside the national borders. It is the legal implementation of an idea of Fidel Castro expressed in 1965, that people who leave Cuba would never be considered citizens. Although the Citizenship Law has not yet been published in the official gazette of the Cuban State, it is possible that with its entry into force situations such as those that occurred in Nicaragua may arise.
In Venezuela, and in the context following the electoral fraud of July 28, 2024, the National Assembly debated a law to disqualify for life those who support sanctions and annul their identity documents. The so-called “Simon Bolivar Liberator Organic Law against the Imperialist Blockade and for the Defense of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” will be applied against natural and legal persons, whether or not they have held any public office by appointment or by popular election, who request or support international sanctions, in accordance with the provisions of Article 65 of the Venezuelan Constitution.
According to Iris Valera, deputy of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and member of the drafting commission, this law will punish “traitors to the homeland”, as those who support the sanctions are considered. He also reiterated his support to the perpetual disqualification from public office, because the Constitution establishes in its Article 44 that it is the deprivation of liberty which cannot exceed 30 years.
Meanwhile, Jorge Rodriguez, president of the National Assembly, stated that “treason to the homeland is like a renunciation of nationality, but we respect that, the Constitution says that they cannot be deprived of their nationality”. However, he reiterated that the State has an identification system which allows the annulment of the identification and company registration documents of “traitors to the homeland”, and this can be done through administrative channels.
This tendency to use “treason” or “acts contrary to high political, economic and social interests” to deprive political opponents and human rights defenders of citizenship or nationality shows that collaboration between dictatorships in the region is ongoing. It also appears to be more active than that of the democracies because while the latter reconcile their positions and interests, the autocracies share a common position on the repression of human rights, both by legal and other means. Hence, it is necessary to increase external pressure on the regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as collaboration among them and with their allies in other countries will continue as it is essential for their survival.