Democracia y gobiernos de facto

Democracy and Ditactorships portrays the gradual involvement of the painter Juan Cárde nas Arroyo in the fertile artistic movement of the 1960s, led by Marta Traba, through his caricature in Lámpara, Nova, and Flash: Fogonazo Informativo. But, above all, it reveals the political commentator, the one who participated in the unique defense of democracy during the presidency of Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966-1970); the one who provided a graphic testimony of two paradoxical features of that government. On one hand, a restricted public opinion, which eventually led Cárdenas to contribute to La República, El Tiempo, El Espacio, and Flash, followed by isolation from any publication. On the other hand, the similarities with its antithesis: dictatorships. A civilian president, contrary to what was expressed by the supporters of the National Front, was not an undisputed guarantee of certain individual freedoms. This is the reflection that the text invites, to question and investigate the use of the word democracy at all times and in all places, especially in acountry defined, with a certain moral superiority, as one of the "oldest democracies.”.