Authoritarians of all countries...unite

Abstract

A quarter of a century has passed since the triumph of chavismo in Venezuela, with its legacy of massive impoverishment, criminal repression, and massive forced migration. During this time, when some of us warned of the autocratic drift in that country, other colleagues in the academy - Latin American, American, European - responded, with a mixture of derision and indulgence, "It's no big deal...". To such a dismissal it was possible to reply -and so we did- that what happened in that or any other country was not a copy, down to the last detail, of a specific model. However, it was the strategic and gradual imposition of practices, institutions, uses, and customs that strengthened despotic domination. All adaptable elements, according to the historical, social, and cultural differences of each case; but similar in their essential oppressive features.