The Cuban priest Alberto Reyes, from the diocese of Camagüey, shared a reflection in which he details all the rights that the government has taken away from the people during these six decades, while urging the citizenry not to lose hope.
Father Reyes, known for his rejection of the Castro regime that he often denounces and criticizes on his social media, recalled that the many Cubans who risked their lives to overthrow Batista did so driven by hope. Those who came afterward fostered that same hope and transmitted a false illusion to the people, while buying time to consolidate their power and take over the country.
In a post on his Facebook wall, Reyes listed all the freedoms that communism has taken away from the people: alternative political parties, free elections, peaceful protests, private initiative...
Now, the people know that everything was manipulation and lies; that is why the regime has only one option left: a hard hand and continuous threats.
Next, CiberCuba shares the full text of the publication:
"I have been thinking… (LXXXV) by Alberto Reyes Pías"
I have been thinking about the root of some 'no's.
Many years ago, this town grew tired of Batista's dictatorship, and the vast majority supported the revolutionary movements that fought against tyranny. Many people risked their property, status, and even their lives; many worked in secrecy, many lost family members, many died. Why? What gave them strength and courage? What made them challenge dangers? Hope, the sun that rises in the soul when it is still night.
Those who planned to seize this island fostered hope and conveyed in a thousand ways to this people that their support and sacrifices would culminate in victory. When it happened, they offered this people a prepared illusion, making them believe that only they knew the way to the longed-for freedom, while buying time to chain the only thing that could truly take away their power: hope.
That's why they set up a 'no' where this community expected and needed a 'yes'. The 'no' to what they could or cannot allow.
No to alternative political parties, because political parties are not just a grouping of people with different thoughts, but a set of people who come together to dream of a different country, to generate a new vision of reality, and from that vision, encourage each other to seek the means to make it possible, and this dream, this vision, needs hope in its soul.
No to free elections. They invite people to vote, but they prevent real choice, because the right to choose conveys the message that it is possible to think differently, and that projects towards change, as choosing is a way to live hope.
No to freedom of expression, because they cannot allow citizen voices to reach the sleeping, deceived, or terrified masses. They cannot accept being questioned by those who offer a different option, because if the people start to believe in that different option, nothing will prevent hope from being born in them, and hope awakens, reveals the deceptions, and strengthens the determination that it is possible to make a change.
No to peaceful demonstrations, because sometimes we believe that hope is just a personal and private matter, but when that hope is shared, proclaimed, and taken to the streets, it is revealed to be the hope of an entire people, and that makes one believe in the change that was previously thought impossible.
No to the amnesty for political prisoners, because imprisoning those who think differently is the best warning of what can happen to those who give voice to their hope.
No to the advance of private initiative, because private initiative means autonomy, empowerment, independence from the State. Private initiative is called freedom, and freedom nurtures hope.
The times of idyllic romances, of soothing promises and energetic songs that foretold futures of glory are behind us. Now we know each other and have looked each other in the eye. Now we know that it was all manipulation and lies.
It's no longer worth pretending. Only hard hands and continuous threats remain. Only attempts to convince that hope is futile, and that dreaming of a different tomorrow is worthless.
And yet, in the heart of this people, every new day, amidst precariousness and tyranny, a voice deep within renounces and resonates: 'I exist' – says hope – and one day, one day, we will manage to change the night for a freedom that becomes midday."
What do you think?
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