The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, convening in Barcelona, Catalonia on 19^th and 20^th November 2009:

Friedrich Hayek’s book The Road to Serfdom opens with a quotation from David Hume: “It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once”, which is particularly apt for describing what is happening in a number of Latin American countries that have embarked on “Bolivarian” agendas. Now it is not just Cuba, which continues to live under totalitarianism. All the civil rights of citizens in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua are under a permanent threat that is leading them to the loss of all their liberties.

In the footsteps of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez Frías was the first to start a process of building “21st-century Socialism”. After years of attempting to undermine the rule of Law his efforts have resulted in Venezuela’s new Constitution, a text that violates the division of powers and concentrates those powers in the hands of the president of the Republic (who threatens to continue heading the Revolution until 2019!), and who is changing the territorial structure of the State and moulding it to an ideological and military model.

Constitutional changes apart, opposition politicians suffer the greatest harassment. Some, such as the businessman Emilio Cedeño, have been imprisoned without due process. Others such as the mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo López, have seen their political rights diminished through bans obstructing them from presenting themselves for election. And some, such as the former candidate for the presidency Manuel Rosales, have had to go into exile. And there are even those, like the student leader Nixon Moreno, who have to live in hiding. Neither should we forget that the mayor-elect of Caracas, Antonio Ledesma, cannot exercise the functions for which he was elected by the people.

Furthermore, Chavez’s strategy places the media under the greatest pressure. Radio Caracas Televisión was closed down. Others are subjected to every kind of threat as well as dishonest competition from State-controlled media. Companies and the right to property are also under siege through nationalisation and extortion of every kind. Rice-growing and metallurgical companies, banks and the entire oil industry have already been nationalised regardless of whether this property be Venezuelan, Japanese, Mexican or European. The unions too are being replaced with committees controlled by the official party. The greatest alarm, however, has been caused by the new Education Law, which provides for figures known as Controladores de Pensum, responsible for ideological control, to be present in all schools, both public and private. On 5 September thousands of people protested against this law.

Chavism, however, is only the most advanced expression of this drift towards authoritarianism. The discourse of a large part of the Latin American left is aimed at discrediting representative democracy in favour of progressing towards a popular democracy. Thus, either with or without an indigenous tint depending on the latitude, democracy is veering towards authoritarianism and totalitarianism. The presidents of a number of countries have promoted constitutional reforms which would allow them to remain in power, from Correa in Ecuador, who managed, to Zelaya in Honduras, who was not successful. In Bolivia, like Venezuela, the supporters of president Evo Morales already constitute a paramilitary shock force which intimidates members of the opposition and occupies land and factories. In Nicaragua president Daniel Ortega also follows this model and in Managua, as in Caracas, Eduardo Montealegre has not been able to exercise the mayoralty despite having won the municipal elections.

The drive towards authoritarianism is not, however, limited to these countries. This dogmatic and militaristic left has a strategy for the whole continent and, either from a position of power or from other spheres, from Argentina to Mexico, there are forces that, from the most demagogic populism, are committing a series of assaults on fundamental rights and liberties.

In the face of the expansion of this dogmatic left that endangers people’s liberties the path for European liberals to take is:

-         Together with liberals from all free nations, we must not let our guard slip and neither must we back down;

-         We must give resolute support to our liberal friends in Latin America in defence of democratic freedoms and rights throughout the continent;

-         We must raise our voices against the totalitarian temptation with various formulas for containment and democratic response in each of the countries;

-         We undertake to defend the tenet that diplomatic relations between our respective countries and the Bolivarian regimes are to include the defence of democratic principles;

-         The defence of liberty in Latin America must form part of the ELDR Party agenda. The freedom of every man, every woman and every group of people is also something that affects us.