When organized crime takes over the government and subjects the people to a situation of defenselessness through crimes with which they maintain power and democratic countries do not fulfill their obligations to end these dictatorships, civil resistance and solidarity for the defense of Human rights and peace have in the “United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime” or Palermo Convention, an ideal instrument to accuse and end disgrace.
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, or Palermo Convention, was signed in 2000 and has been in force since September 29, 2003. Annex I establishes the “purpose of promoting cooperation to prevent and combat more effectively transnational organized crime. Defines “criminal group” as “a structured group of three or more persons existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the purpose of committing one or more serious crimes or offenses established in accordance with this Convention with a view to obtaining, directly or indirectly, an economic benefit or another material benefit.”
The scope of application of the Convention established in its article 3 provides that “it shall apply to the prevention, investigation and prosecution of the “serious crimes” defined in article 2.b: ““Serious crime” shall mean conduct that constitutes a crime punishable by a maximum deprivation of liberty of at least four years or a more serious penalty.” The crime “will be transnational in nature if” a) It is committed in more than one State; b) It is committed within a single State, but a substantial part of its preparation, planning, direction or control is carried out in another State; c) It is committed within a single State, but involves the participation of an organized criminal group that carries out criminal activities in more than one State; or d) It is committed in a single State, but has substantial effects in another State.”
More than 180 states have ratified the Convention, including the 35 states of the Americas. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is responsible for implementation, states are responsible for its application and citizens and institutions have the right to use it before national authorities through investigation requests, lawsuits or requests. before prosecutors and judges.
The Palermo Convention is part of the mandatory legal regulations in force to protect the human rights of the person against transnational organized crime.
The groups that hold power in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, led by the dictators Castro/Diaz-Canel, Maduro, Arce/Morales and Ortega/Murillo respectively, are included in the definition of “criminal group” of the Convention of Palermo and commit “serious crimes” on a daily basis such as undue arrests, suppression of freedom, falsifications, false accusations and complaints, torture, extortion, subjection to slavery and an endless list of crimes against freedom, against people, against property, and against humanity that include terrorism and drug trafficking. They are “transnational crimes” because “they have substantial effects in other States”, such as the forced migration of millions of Cubans and Venezuelans due to hunger, insecurity and persecution and more.
The “criminal groups” that control Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are directed from Cuba and integrated into the so-called “socialism of the 21st century” or “Castrochavism” as the alibi to cover up their crimes as political facts, when the objective reality and abundant evidence shows the flagrant commission of “serious crimes with substantial effects in other states.”
The Palermo Convention was ratified by Cuba on February 9, 2007, by Venezuela on May 13, 2002, by Bolivia on October 10, 2005 and by Nicaragua on September 9, 2002, therefore it is applicable law from those dates, to denounce and condemn the criminals who hold power in those countries committing crimes as part of their system of oppression, which is “state terrorism.”
This international and internal legal framework imposes that prosecutors and courts of any country party to the Palermo Convention, in which substantial effects of the crimes that the “criminal groups” of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are presented, assume jurisdiction, judge and sentence the dictators and members of their criminal groups that include repressors, members of the dictatorial justice apparatus, falsifiers of their assembly of elections during the dictatorship, officials, members of their military and police security groups, propagandists, apologists and more.
*Lawyer and Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy
