The Cuban priest Alberto Reyes stated in an interview that the Cuban revolution is already over, and the government knows it, and although it can prevent people from protesting and taking to the streets, it cannot stop the people from longing for freedom.
Father Reyes, a fervent critic of the dictatorship, stated that Cubans want a change of system, but that the government does not give them the opportunity to defend their position either politically or legally, because it has absolute power.
When freedom is yearned for, it is like water, which will seek a way out. The people are waiting for an opportunity to take a step and experience a different reality; so you may repress me, but you cannot prevent me from loving freedom, which will come," she emphasized.
Reyes, parish priest of the diocese of Camagüey, granted an interview to the portal Voces de Cuba, in which he revealed what he considers the biggest problem in Cuba: hopelessness.
"The government has managed to instill in people's subconscious the idea that there will never be a change, that this will not end, that it will be forever. We know that is not the case," he emphasized.
"People have no way out, the socio-economic situation is increasingly difficult and complicated; the political situation is becoming more repressive, so it's like a sinking feeling for the people," she explained.
The priest expressed that the Cuban loves his land, but emigrates because his life in Cuba is full of problems and precarity.
"How is this solved? With a free, democratic, prosperous Cuba. When freedom is the environment in which a society can live, everything begins to flourish," he stated.
"We need tangible, real freedom in Cuba, so that we can progress towards the life that Cubans want to live from a place of freedom," he detailed.
Reyes is one of the most critical voices of the Castro dictatorship, and he has used his Facebook profile for this purpose, where he maintains his column "He estado pensando" (I have been thinking), in which he denounces the government's wrongdoings and the sad reality of the people.
Last May, he announced that every night the electricity is cut off in his town, he will ring the bells of his church 30 times in protest against the long blackouts that are affecting the population.
"I will ring the church bells 30 times, with the slow toll of funeral processions, with the toll that announces death and mourning: the agonizing death of our freedom and our rights," he said.
This week, the priest called on the Cuban people not to settle for a slight improvement in the country's situation, but to fight for a definitive change as a way out of the crisis.
On another occasion, she stated that social change in Cuba must arise from the people, it will not come spontaneously from those who govern, because their daily life is so different that they are unable to empathize with the suffering of the people.
All those denunciations have turned him into an uncomfortable figure for the regime, and as a result, he has personally suffered acts of repudiation.
In March, Reyes had to suspend the procession of San José in Esmeralda, Camagüey, after authorities tried to change the route, despite having the authorization of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee.
"We have decided that there will be no procession because it would be a way of saying 'everything is fine,' and that is not true. Religious freedom is a right, not a favor, not something that is 'conceded to us benignly' and that we should be grateful for," stated the parish priest on his Facebook wall.
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