Lea en español en Diario El País.
A Paraguayan colleague once explained to me that in Latin America you cannot ignore the left-versus-right dichotomy. The leftist coalition lionizes dictators such as the late Fidel Castro and works in concert—via the Bolivarian Alliance, São Paulo Forum, and Puebla Group—to build sister dictatorships like the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and Chavistas in Venezuela. Honduras is now their most vulnerable target.
Sans the packaging, leftism’s stated promise is socially engineered equality. This egalitarian mantra sounds benign and is a siren song to many. However, its history and implications contrast with civil liberties and a laissez-faire economy. In the words of Cuban scholar José Azel, “Marxists sacrifice individual freedoms [at] the altar of collectivism.”
Charlie Kirk’s assassination revealed how leftists think about those who disagree with them. In English– and Spanish-language leftist media, there was a rush to call Kirk names and celebrate his killing. The young man’s crime was to unravel their dogma.
The scars are so raw from leftist violence against Latinos that Anglos can learn from their insights. Nicaraguan exile Marco Navarro-Génie notes: “Central American politics remain bound to the logic of war, where opponents are enemies, and victory means total domination.”
1. Leftism is totalitarian.
Wannabe dictators, with few exceptions, favor the left’s socialism. Even Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, branding himself as an independent man of the people, started with the Marxist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front.
Leftist politicos have little interest in equality—some are more equal than others should be their tagline—but the ideology provides endless useful idiots. Humans will never achieve equal outcomes, so the justification for state intervention is insatiable en route to totalitarianism.
2. The ends justify the means.
If purported egalitarian outcomes are the goal, personal scruples compelling honesty, nonviolence, and lawfulness are secondary to gaining power and imposing redistribution. Although the Sandinistas fashioned themselves as liberators in 1979, writes Navarro-Génie, “almost immediately, their revolutionary rhetoric turned into a new monopoly of power, sidelining rivals and concentrating authority.”
3. Leftists are violent.
One unavoidable fact about socialism is that it is coercive. If you disagree, tough luck. You will be forced to comply. If you resist, the state will kill you.
This violence goes beyond the formal state. Leftists organize paramilitaries to defend their hold on power, such as Venezuela’s Tupamaro and Nicaragua’s volunteer police. (The US equivalent is the mislabelled Antifa.) They have their own Fifty Shades of Gray and love to blockade roads and damage property, and they murder those who dissent. That includes hundreds of prodemocracy protesters who perished in Nicaragua in 2018.
4. Leftists hate the aristocracy.
Autocratic regimes on the right, such as in Chile from 1973 to 1990, deserve condemnation. However, they are not motivated by envy and class warfare and are not revolutionary, which means they are less destructive and less perennial.
A natural aristocracy affirms the diverse talents of humanity. Some are blessed with gifts, and these are distributed unequally. Leftists chase away and replace the aristocracy with a parasitic clique of kleptocratic rulers. They retain the pomp and circumstance of leadership but lack the grandeur and nobility.
5. Free speech is their kryptonite.
Stating the truth about egalitarianism cripples the leftist agenda. That is why censorship and state propaganda are baked into leftist strategy.
Cuba is the end of the road: a slave plantation and island of lies. The communists have tightly restricted freedom of speech and assembly, even assassinating Oswaldo Payá (1952–2012) for seeking democracy. The regime has also spied on everyone via the Committees for Defense of the Revolution and funded propaganda such as Granma and teleSUR.
Expecting fruitful dialogue and playing nice with leftists is as viable as debating die-hard feminists—a waste of time. They are battling for power, motivated by resentment and greed rather than rationale. Their feelings do not care about facts or coherent messaging.
As Javier Milei took office in Argentina, leftists said “¡Ni un paso atrás!” (Not one step backward.) They will proceed into any backward step you take, so do not bend an inch. There is no compromise with totalitarians, and we must recognize their incessant threat.
