COMMENTARY When MAGA Latinos liken former President Trump's indictment to political persecution in Latin America, it's an unconscionable insult to real pro-democracy victims in that region.
A venerable hero like the late Oswaldo Pay谩 doesn鈥檛 deserve to be compared to a disgraceful scoundrel like former President Donald Trump.
But that鈥檚 essentially what Trump鈥檚 Latino supporters in South Florida 鈥� los MAGAtinos 鈥� have so disgracefully done this week, by likening his federal indictment to the persecution of opposition leaders back in Latin America.
Of all the many pro-democracy leaders I鈥檝e had the privilege to interview in Latin America, I hold Pay谩 鈥� the Cuban dissident who shook up Fidel Castro鈥檚 communist dictatorship in unprecedented fashion 鈥� in especially high esteem. Pay谩 stunned the world two decades ago when, with Gandhi-esque guts and smarts, he gathered enough petition signatures for a constitutional referendum on democratic reform.
Castro of course didn鈥檛 permit that plebiscite 鈥� in fact, he melted down and jailed scores of Pay谩鈥檚 associates instead 鈥� but Pay谩 set the example for the dissident defiance we鈥檝e seen since in Cuba. 鈥淲e鈥檙e the first non-violent force for change this island has ever known,鈥� he told me at his Havana home in 2003. 鈥淐astro can鈥檛 crush that, no matter how hard he tries.鈥�
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Which makes it less surprising, but no less saddening, to hear the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that Cuban regime agents played a role in the car crash that killed Pay谩 and another democracy activist in eastern Cuba in 2012. The government in Havana denies the charge. But the IACHR鈥檚 findings are just the latest reminder of the genuine threat that genuine champions of democracy like Pay谩 so often face from both left-wing and right-wing tyranny in Latin America.
As opposed to the fabricated threat that a traitor to democracy like Trump says he faces here.
How, por Dios, can any Latino 鈥� especially a Cuban or Venezuelan exile 鈥� conscionably equate a) the unjust oppression unleashed on democracy's torchbearers south of America鈥檚 borders with b) the justifiable prosecution of a democracy-trashing megalomaniac like Trump? One who allegedly handled U.S national security secrets more recklessly than gossips treat personal confidences in a barber shop.
Trump, the comb-over caudillo, had a real knack as President for making us think we'd been transported to Honduras or Nicaragua.
Trump acolyte Kevin Marino Cabrera 鈥� a Cuban-American Miami-Dade County commissioner 鈥� this week that Trump鈥檚 legal woes are 鈥渢he sort of things that you see in the Caribbean and Latin America, where you have the party in power persecuting the opposition.鈥�
Really, Commissioner? You mean, like the time Trump 鈥� when he was the party in power 鈥� tried to subvert the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Congress and U.S. state election agencies into overturning a presidential vote he legitimately lost and the opposition legitimately won?
Goon squads
That, too, is the sort of thing you often see in Latin America and the Caribbean, Commissioner. In fact, the comb-over caudillo you worship so slavishly had a knack when he occupied the White House for making us think we鈥檇 been transported to Honduras or Nicaragua.
We felt it when Trump loosed his neo-Nazi enforcers, the Proud Boys, on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to terrorize his political opposition. It was a revival of goon squads like Manuel Noriega鈥檚 Batallones de la Dignidad (Dignity Batallions) in Panama.
We smelled it when he had National Guard troops fire pepper spray at peaceful anti-police brutality protesters in Washington, D.C.鈥檚 Lafayette Square in 2020 鈥� an eerie reminder of socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicol谩s Maduro鈥檚 notorious attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators.
You want to know where we鈥檙e seeing actual persecution of political opposition right now, Commissioner? It鈥檚 not at the federal courthouse in Miami. It鈥檚 in Guatemala, where a justice system wedged deeply and shamelessly in the pocket of the political establishment is busy disqualifying opposition presidential candidates by filing bogus charges against them. Meanwhile, journalists investigating said establishment鈥檚 epic corruption are getting locked up 鈥� including Jos茅 Rub茅n Zamora, who this week was sentenced to six years in prison.
I know, Commissioner, that you and the rest of the MAGAtinos insist (as Trump does) that only left-wing regimes like Cuba鈥檚 and not right-wing regimes like Guatemala鈥檚 are guilty of 鈥渢hat sort of thing鈥� in Latin America. But it鈥檚 real on both sides.
And to hear you and MAGAtinos trivialize the plight of its very real victims, from Pay谩 to Zamora, by associating them with Trump鈥檚 very made-up victimization?
It's nothing short of disgraceful.
