Priest Alberto Reyes: "When the end of a dictatorship arrives, it is necessary to hold those who harmed society accountable."

Priest Alberto Reyes dedicated one of his reflections to how the Cuban people must heal from the dictatorship process once it ends and the transition to a democratic system takes place.

Reyes, from the Diocese of Camagüey, advocated for a fair trial for those who have harmed society, but warned that this process is not enough; the people must also forgive their tormentors and forgive themselves.

The parish priest, known for his critiques of the government, advocated for forgiving those who spied, reported, and harassed, but also for the people themselves for being naive and not recognizing the deception; for their double standards, their fear of the truth, and for abandoning those who dared to raise their voices.

Next, CiberCuba shares the full text of the publication.

"I have been thinking… (XCI) by Alberto Reyes Pías"

I have been thinking about how to heal a process of dictatorship.

Every dictatorship is an abusive system; therefore, when the end of a dictatorship arrives and the transition to a democratic system occurs, fair judgment is necessary for those who have harmed society.

This is called 'transitional justice,' and it is essential for the people to heal their wounds and focus on the future rather than on the pain and anger of their past.

However, transitional justice does not negate the fact that every people that has experienced a dictatorship will always have many things to forgive and to seek forgiveness for.

Over time, we will have to forgive that we were deceived as a nation, manipulated at the core of our ideals and skillfully led into a system for which we never fought.

We will have to forgive the chain of deaths that this system has caused: from the excessive executions at La Cabaña, through the Angolan war and all the military conflicts we were led into, to the hundreds of thousands of people who have died trying to escape to a different life, and who will rest forever in the sea, in rivers, in impenetrable jungles.

We will have to forgive those who watched us, betrayed us, harassed us, and those who unjustly imprisoned us.

We will have to forgive everything that was never possible due to being turned into a miserable people, submerged in a spirit of survival, without hope, without dreams, without the right to envision our own horizons.

We will have to forgive the hunger we endured, the suffering caused by the lack of medication, the inevitable uprooting from emigration, and the isolation that resulted from that emigration.

We will have to forgive the endless hours of darkness, of anger, of futility and helplessness, the stifling heat from which there was no escape, the torment of mosquitoes, and the preventable diseases that could not be avoided.

Yes, the day will come when we will have to say: 'It is no longer the present; it is now the past, and it must remain in the past,' even though part of that past continues to hurt, in some way, in a corner of the present.

But for the healing to be complete, it will not be enough to forgive; we will also have to forgive ourselves.

Forgive us for having been an naive people, swayed by a power-hungry individual, but above all, forgive us for continuing to play along even after we realized the deception, which gradually built the prison that now suffocates us.

Forgive us for the applause, the euphoric parades of May Day, the open stands, the marches of the fighting people, the endless acts of 'revolutionary reaffirmation', the complicity in acts of repudiation…

Forgiving ourselves not only for having passively accepted that our children were indoctrinated, but for having gone further and teaching them to 'not stand out', to remain silent, to nod in order to 'avoid trouble'. Ultimately, forgiving ourselves for having taught them to become slaves.

Forgive us for our double standards, our fear of the truth, and for leaving alone those who dared to raise their voices echoing in our own consciences.

A true transition does not begin in the streets but in the soul, because in a transition, necessary justice alone will not suffice; one cannot heal from a dictatorship without the dual process of forgiving and being forgiven.