The discussion of whether or not inviting Latin América’s most notorious autocracies to the regional talks has highlighted how these governments choke dissenting voices at home.
By Caracas Chronicles
Jun 3, 2022
For the past three weeks, the upcoming Summit of the Americas has sparked a debate on the pressure on free speech by authoritarian governments in the Americas, after the Biden administration announced it wouldn’t invite the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the reunion next week. The controversy escalated when regional leaders (from México, Bolivia, and some Caricom countries) threatened to boycott the event. Kevin O’Reilly, the U.S. summit coordinator, said it would be up to the White House to determine whether to invite Cuba to the June 6-10 meeting in Los Ángeles but that Cuban civil society activists had been asked to attend, Reuters reported.
The Summit of the Americas is an international event that brings together leaders from the Organization of American States (OAS) from North, South, and Central América, and the Caribbean, to promote cooperation between them to promote economic growth, human rights and democratic values. Of course, it’s also a highly criticized event that has since the 90s been a cause of diplomatic friction between Washington and Latín American countries.
The announcement sparked a conversation about authoritarian practices in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and censorship, persecution, and digital rights have been at the center of the debate. Why? According to the 2021 World Rankings report, by the NGO Reporters Without Borders, the common denominator among the three countries is censorship, authoritarianism, and state aggression that aggravates the violation of digital rights and Internet attacks against communicators. In an environment of violence against independent and digital media in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, journalists denounce how these regimes use hate speech and censorship to control social media.
Social media is more than a source of entertainment in these countries. Censorship and persecution of activists and journalists have turned social media into the most relevant source of information and “a big tool of resistance,” as described by Guillermo Medrano, human rights coordinator for the Fundación Violeta Chamorro, a Nicaraguan NGO that watches over freedom of expression.
“There are clear patterns of censorship in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela: the practice of blocking social media and news websites is the most repetitive one, but cyberbullying, hacking, and identity theft incidents led by the governments don’t fall behind,” explains Norges Rodríguez, journalist, activist, and co-founder of YucaBytes. Rodríguez also explains that these patterns go beyond the national scope: “There’s also a collaboration between all three countries in digital, diplomatic, political and economic dimensions. This joint strategy isn’t a secret, these countries are very open and frontal about it.”
Let’s compare the patterns between the digital ecosystems in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, three countries with similar strategies of censorship, digital persecution, and digital rights violations.
What does freedom of the press look like in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?
La red de periodistas venezolanas organized a digital space with female journalists from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and El Salvador to discuss what reporting from these countries looks like. It was a great discussion that highlighted the similarities in their strategies of repression. Check it out.
- Cuba is the worst country for freedom of expression in Latin America, explains NGO RSF in its report: the Constitution prohibits private ownership of the media; all active journalists are required to join the Union of Cuban Journalists, controlled by the ruling Communist Party; a non-autonomous judiciary hinders and/or punishes the expression of dissenting opinions; and many legal provisions allow abuse by state officials. Amnesty International has publicly stated that being a journalist is a risky profession in Cuba.
- RSF states that in Venezuela, since 2017, security forces and intelligence services have intensified repression against the media, with the Maduro regime trying to silence any content that questions his authority, but patterns of restrictions on freedom of the press date back 20 years. According to the NGO Espacio Público, in the last three years, criminal persecution has increased and legal proceedings have been opened not only against journalists, but also citizens who report. The report also states that citizens have resorted to installing VPNs on their computers to bypass portal blocking. However, the constant failures in the electrical service and the difficult connection to the Internet, especially outside of the capital, Caracas, further limit the access to information.
- Nicaraguan journalists also suffer daily harassment campaigns and death threats. After the violently repressed protests in 2018, the government prohibited free mobilization and civic protest and intensified the attacks against the media. The UN and the Inter-American System have documented repeated attacks, raids, and forms of censorship against journalists and independent media in Nicaragua.
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Read More: Caracas Chronicles – Autocracies complain about exclusion from regional talks to promote Democracy
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