DICTATORSHIP AND REPRESSION
Dictatorship and repression are inseparable to the point of constituting the two sides of a same coin. All dictatorships without exception use repression in the endeavour to perpetrate their absolute power. Eliminating freedom, plurality and all mechanisms (political, trade unionist, of expression) with which citizens can express themselves is a priority of dictatorial regimes, no matter what their ilk. Repression, at the end of the day, serves to ensure the survival of dictatorships, which present themselves as guarantors of a common good which, in their hands, is neither good nor common, but violence meted out by a minority in the endeavour to impose its interests and ideology upon society as a whole.
The 20th century witnessed a sad proliferation of different kinds of dictatorships, all nevertheless united by the rejection of democracy. It is nevertheless paradoxical that it is countries governed in democracy which have often favoured dictatorships in different parts of the world with the purpose of protecting their economic and geostrategic interests.
Driven or not by the influence of third countries, dictatorships governed by a privileged oligarchy make alliances with anti-democratic sectors of the army or paramilitary forces to preserve the dictatorial regime by means of violence, often instituted by means of a military coup or the violent overthrowing of power. In everyday life, different police forces at the service of dictatorship implacably apply terror. Persecution, imprisonment and the assassination of dissidents seeks to eliminate all opposition to the regime and dissuade anyone attempting to overthrow it.
One of the most aberrant forms of repressive violence is torture, i.e., the systematic and meditated applying of suffering to people. This is perhaps the vilest deed of which the human being is capable. Added to this is the fact that it is never a gratuitous act (beyond the sadism of the torturers): inflicting unbearable pain and humiliation on people aims to bend their will as human beings and free citizens in order to achieve their complete annulment, their living death.
Many of the dictatorships born in the 20th century have been toppled thanks to the bravery and efforts of those who dared to stand up to them. Today it is the unavoidable duty of democratic societies to repair the damage and pay tribute to those who suffered their persecution, torture and even death. The same applies to unanimous condemnation and the bringing to trial, if still possible, of those who caused so much pain. No society can allow itself to forget the innocent men or women or leave such barbarism unpunished.