A Camaguey, Cuba Priest Warns the Country’s Leaders
“Get out, before the people rise up with uncontrollable fury”
Camagüey, Cuba Priest Alberto Reyes accuses the regime of committing “a silent genocide” against the population.
HAVANA TIMES – The columns published by the Camagüey priest Alberto Reyes every Sunday have made him the spokesperson for Cubans who do not dare to speak publicly. “My words are not a cry of violence; they are not an aggressive outburst,” says Reyes in his text. “I have been thinking” – the title he uses – “that this week I will ask the leadership of the regime to leave.”
The priest, whose open demands to the Government have cost him reprimands from both the Church and State Security, did not hesitate this Sunday to address, not Cubans – as he always does – but the rulers of the Island. “Get out, take all you want and leave this country forever,” Reyes wrote and urged them to do so “before, somehow, things change and you can be tried and accused of crimes against humanity, because what you have done and are doing to the Cuban people is a silent genocide.”
“You are not going to revive this country; you are not going to remedy the lack of fuel nor the instability of the thermoelectric plants; nor are you going to give us back a life without continuous blackouts,” said the priest, who continued to lengthen the list of insecurities that Cubans experience.
Inflation, hunger, shortage of medicines, deplorable medical care, lack of basic supplies, educational damage, agricultural debacle, galloping emigration, accelerated aging of the population and the lack of “a national project” were the reasons the priest gave as the prelude to a social explosion. “Get out, before these people reach the end of their endurance, rise up with uncontrollable fury and carry out the demise of this system by destroying everything they find in their path with blood and fire,” he warned.
The priest has his ministry in Esmeralda, a town of Camagüey with 30,000 inhabitants
“Every day without light, without water, without food; every day with food for the children spoiled, with the omnipresent scarcity and the desire for freedom. This is what you do with blind and excessive violence,” Reyes stressed.
The priest has his ministry in Esmeralda, a town of Camagüey with 30,000 inhabitants. From his parish, where he was sent for his “problematic” positions, Reyes has denounced the situation of Cubans and the helplessness to which the regime has subjected them. Every anti-government demonstration or protest that has been unleashed in recent years has found in the priest a voice of support.
Last May, the parish priest began to ring the bells of his church 30 times whenever there was a blackout in the town. This newspaper managed to record the bells, which represented the “agonizing death of our freedom and our rights, the suffocation and sinking of our lives.” A short time later, because of a warning from State Security, his superiors forbade him to ring the bells again.
Reyes has not ceased, however, to ask for a change in Cuba, and this Sunday his claim has been forceful: “Live where you want and can do it, so that we too may live.”
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.
How long will it be before the Cuban totalitarian leaders follow the Nicaraguan example of expelling from the country priests and religious who vociferously speak out about the deplorable conditions imposed on the population.
The brave Cuban priest Alberto Reyes is simply speaking the truth. His vocal condemnation of the incompetent, inept, insular totalitarian rulers has reached a crisis point whereby the majority of Cubans have had enough societal suffering.
Alberto Reyes is absolutely correct and truthful when he unequivocally states, and “You “ refers to the Cuban government: “You are not going to revive this country; you are not going to remedy the lack of fuel nor the instability of the thermoelectric plants; nor are you going to give us back a life without continuous blackouts,” Every Cuban knows this but the priest has the strength of conviction and the tenacity to tell it as he sees it.
Of course his actions have cost him reprimands from the State authorities but as a parish priest witnessing the immense suffering his flock must endure plus the suffering the majority of citizens in his town and the general population country wide must endure daily, those rulers in government need to be held accountable publicly.
To reference the bible, Alberto Reyes, parish priest, is the good shepherd leading his parish flock and if the proverbial sheep are suffering immensely daily from “Inflation, hunger, shortage of medicines, deplorable medical care, lack of basic supplies, educational damage, agricultural debacle, galloping emigration, accelerated aging of the population . . . “ is it not incumbent for the good shepherd to try at least to ameliorate the dreadful situation as he sees fit?
In Nicaragua a similar situation whereby priests and religious speak out against despicable dictators and of course the priests are admonished for advocating for their followers and are booted out of the country for speaking the truth. Dictators and all totalitarian rulers subjugating their citizens to constant suffering hate any opposition to their rule and anyone speaking out, acting out, against their rule are targeted.
Brave Alberto Reyes, a true compassionate shepherd, fears not the State security telling him to stop his advocacy on behalf of the suffering citizens and has told, unequivocally, the totalitarian rulers to go and graze elsewhere for you have caused enough suffering in Cuba so far: “ Get out, take all you want and leave this country forever,” Reyes wrote.
Hurray for Alberto Reyes, parish priest, for having the fortitude and fight to visibly display his compassion and conviction on behalf of his congregation and for all suffering Cubans. He may be eventually expelled for his actions, but at least he is setting an example and calling out those totalitarian rulers who, according to Alberto Reyes, really are the ones who need to be permanently expelled from the country.