By Sacha Llorenti September 19, 2025
photo: Bill Hackwell
Historian Eric Hobsbawn described the 20th century as a short one that began in 1914 with the start of World War I and ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He called this period the Age of Extremes.
How could we describe the times we live in? A time in which, if it is possible to commit genocide with impunity, anything, anything is possible. Yes, unfortunately for humanity, it is not the first genocide. However, it is the worst in history.
It is the worst in history because at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Armenian people were victims, the intention to totally or partially destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group did not even have a name. Decades later, when the Red Army liberated the first concentration camps, there were no rules to condemn it. The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials drafted the definitions of genocide after the events had taken place. It was in 1948, when the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide established international responsibilities for punishing the crime of crimes.
When the genocides in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda were committed, the definition existed, but there was no international court specializing in the prosecution of the worst crimes. Despite this, and avoiding the same attitude in other cases, special courts were created to investigate and punish the crimes in Srebrenica and Rwanda.
In 2025, we have clearly written rules: we have the specialized tribunal of the International Criminal Court; we have, before our eyes, live broadcasts and evidence upon evidence of the commission of genocide. Unlike other genocides, today we hear and read that those who perpetrate them do not try to hide or deny their intentions; they state them openly and publicly. A genocide live and direct, in 4K and on all our screens. A genocide supported militarily, economically, diplomatically, and in the media by the so-called “Western civilization” which, until recently, carried the banner of the universality of human rights to justify its abuses across all continents.
The genocide against the Palestinian people is the most serious, but it is not the only feature of this era. For some years now, the Age of Cynicism has dawned, an age in which what was once unacceptable is now the norm.
The rise of the far right, the vindication of Nazism and fascism, the unabashed increase in military spending in Europe, a president who shouts insults and asks his dead dogs for advice, electoral fraud in Ecuador that outrages no one, attempts to invade Venezuela disguised as “humanitarian aid” or “the fight against drugs,” acts of piracy and the criminal hoarding of vaccines during the pandemic, attacks on the lives and proscription of Evo and Cristina, constant threats against Cuba.
When did this era begin?
It is very difficult to put a start date on this era, but I would say it was when a candidate for the presidency of the United States was catapulted to victory after saying that shooting someone on Fifth Avenue in New York would not cost him any votes, or when the infamous “grab them by the pussy” did not change his electoral support at all.
The fact is that Hitler was fought and Netanyahu is applauded. That sums up this era. It is also a message to the world: if genocide is allowed to go unpunished, anything goes, from coups d’état to invasions and wars of aggression.
Cynicism is hegemonic, but of course all is not lost. There are huge mobilizations on every continent demanding an end to genocide and opposing wars and military intervention in Venezuela. In reality, we are witnessing the emergence of other poles, other forms, other contents, other values. This era, like all eras, will come to an end.
The pole of organized indignation
For all these reasons, the moral tone of the nascent multipolarity should not be defined by cynicism, but rather by the peoples. The central pole of this multipolarity must be constituted by organized indignation, solidarity that embraces continents, and permanent resistance, which, by resisting so much, becomes victory.
Sacha Llorenti is a Bolivian lawyer and former President of the UN Security Council and former Executive Secretary of ALBA – TCP
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English