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We are smiling in this photo, yet each of us bears the scars of confronting tyranny. One of us has been stripped of his nationality by the Maduro regime, threatened with death simply for fearlessly defending the freedom of his people. Another endured years in the prisons of Nicaragua’s dictatorship, his citizenship erased in an attempt to silence him. Another, the daughter of the heroic “Hotel Rwanda” figure has been attacked both physically and through relentless surveillance by the Rwandan regime. And I stand here only because the FBI stopped five agents of the Islamic Republic sent to kidnap or kill me in three individual plots. Today, all five are behind bars in the United States. But here is what dictators never understand: Power is not our goal. Freedom is. That is why, as President of the World Liberty Congress, and with Leopoldo as Secretary General, and Gary Kasparov as Vice President, we voluntarily stepped down from our positions at our General Assembly in Berlin Parliament. Because our strength does not come from titles. It comes from the moral force of millions who believe in dignity, security, and free elections. We all joined the High-Level Global Security Summit on behalf of 180 delegates from 60 authoritarian regimes. from Iran, to Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Rwanda, sat at the same table with Europe’s top security and defense officials with one clear message: If the world wants real security, it must stand with the freedom fighters who face oppression at home and transnational repression far beyond a dictator’s borders. Dictators are upgrading and working together, so we must unite as well. @WLCongress @leopoldolopez @ckanimba @maradiaga