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The Cuban Catholic priest Alberto Reyes Pías published a new message on Facebook, where he dismantles the official narrative of the regime regarding several recent cases of repression and reveals what he believes lies behind each one.
Under the title "I’ve Been Thinking About What Is and What Isn’t," the parish priest of Esmeralda, Camagüey, begins with a premise that runs throughout the text: "In this world, not everything is what it seems, and in Cuba, this rule is amplified."
The first case analyzed is that of Jonathan David Muir Burgos, a 16-year-old, arrested in March after participating in protests in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, held in a maximum-security prison and charged with sabotage.
"Jonathan is a political object, a warning against the youth, against the parents of the youth, and even a warning against the churches," says Reyes. "He is a trophy of power, and in order to keep that trophy, it doesn't matter if they strip him of his humanity, if they break him, or if he is destroyed."
The priest also addresses the detention of Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez, members of the audiovisual project El4tico, from Holguín, arrested in February in an operation that included the confiscation of equipment and cameras.
"If Ernesto and Kamil were terrorists or promoters of a language of hate, society would have welcomed their detention," warns the priest, who emphasizes that their detention is "the loud and clear message of a Government determined not to tolerate dissenting voices."
The text mentions Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente (Anna Bensi), a 21-year-old activist who has been under house arrest since March 25, and the collective "Fuera de la Caja," whose members have faced harassment from State Security against them and their families.
"If Anna Sofía and the kids from 'Fuera de la Caja' were disorganized, alienated, or unbalanced youth, this Government wouldn't have bothered in the slightest to pay them any attention," Reyes states.
And he adds: "They are the voice of the emerging Cuban youth, representing the genuine feelings of the new generations. Their persecution and harassment is not an act of justice towards the Revolution, but an attempt to eradicate a danger."
The column also dismantles the campaign "My Signature for the Homeland," launched by the Communist Party on April 19, with which the regime boasts of over 6.2 million signatures collected.
A leaked audio from May 2 reveals direct orders to sign under the threat of dismissal in workplaces, schools, and warehouses.
For the priest, the campaign "is nothing more than another reminder of who has their boot on our neck, it is just another proof of how much a people can be controlled through fear."
Father Reyes concludes with a question that summarizes the arbitrariness of the system: "Can a broken window be worth 15 years of life?" This refers to the more than a thousand political prisoners incarcerated since July 11, 2021, whom the regime labels as "promoters of public disorder" and "destroyers of social property."
"This town is not foolish, and beyond what it seems, we all know what everything is," he concludes, in what constitutes one of his most direct and well-documented critiques against the dictatorship.
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