by DNA Cuba Desk
The British magazine The Economist released the 2022 Democracy Index on Thursday, in which Cuba appears in 139th place, among 165 independent states. Once again the government of the country was described as an “authoritarian regime” and in this edition it scored zero in the indicator of electoral processes and pluralism.
The Havana regime also appears among the worst in the categories civil liberties (2.94 out of 10), political participation (3.33), government functioning (3.21) and political culture (3.75).
Meanwhile, in the 2022 Democracy Index, Venezuela and Nicaragua appear worse located than Cuba , in positions 143 and 147, respectively, for which they were also classified as “authoritarian regimes.”
The Democracy Index 2022 is out. The index ranks 167 countries and territories and categorises them from “full democracies” to “authoritarian regimes”. See how your country ranks here: https://t.co/HASO1mT7iF pic.twitter.com/8dcRbsQhgQ
— Economist Intelligence: EIU (@TheEIU) February 2, 2023
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit index , Latin America and the Caribbean “experience their fourth consecutive year of decline” . Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru are considered “hybrid regimes” in the Americas, while Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay are the only “full democracies.”
The report also warns that “with some exceptions, Latin Americans have a low level of trust in state institutions; the region is home to some of the most unequal and corrupt countries in the world.”
According to the aforementioned study, more than a third of the world population lives under an authoritarian regime (36.9%), a large part in China and Russia, and only 8% lives in a “full democracy”.
Norway, New Zealand, Iceland, Sweden and Finland head the democracy ranking in 2022 , while Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, the Central African Republic and Syria are the worst regimes in the world, in that same order.
Venezuela and Nicaragua among the most corrupt countries in the world
This week it was also known that the fight against corruption is stagnant in America, especially in countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua, which remain under authoritarian regimes, concludes the NGO Transparency International (TI) by publishing its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) on Tuesday. CPI).
The report reveals the ranking of the most corrupt nations in the world in 2022, where Venezuela, governed by the dictator Nicolás Maduro, appears in fourth place with 14 points. On the continent it is followed by Haiti (17) and Nicaragua (19). Several places later were located Honduras, with 23 points, and Paraguay, with 28.
Within the Latin American countries marked by corruption, there are also Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Peru and Ecuador.
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Photo “Cuban Flag” by Matthias Oben.