On July 28, Venezuela held presidential elections. Despite blatant electoral fraud and mass demonstrations across the country, Nicolas Maduro has declared himself the winner – repressing anyone who dares to challenge the legitimacy of his regime. In reflecting on these events, Gabriel Silva, Director General of CADAL, raises a crucial question – What can be done internationally to confront human rights abuses by authoritarian regimes? In this article, Silva suggests that perhaps one of the main challenges in confronting dictatorships is the failure to act preventively when measures that lead to the slow death of democracy become evident in a country. To address this challenge, Silva underscores the urgent need for democracies to adopt a coordinated and active foreign human rights policy, that denounces abuses perpetrated by dictatorships while strengthening shared values in democratic countries.

Read Gabriel Silva’s article here.