Cuba in the Vatican: Hallelujah?

By Matraca (El Toque)

HAVANA TIMES – As part of a tour of several European countries, Miguel Díaz-Canel visited Pope Francis at the Vatican on June 20, 2023. The meeting between the leaders lasted “just over 30 minutes”, long enough to give rise to rumors about the content of the conversations. It is not known with certainty what they talked about, but independent press reports suggest that “sensitive” issues for the regime were discussed.

At the meeting, Diaz-Canel gave the pope a bronze and wood sculpture entitled “The Reader”, as well as two books, one by Fina Garcia-Marruz and another by Cintio Vitier. Pope Francisco, for his part, gave him a bronze dove with an olive branch in its beak. The dove has the message “Be messengers of peace” engraved, perhaps a veiled dig for the one who gave the combat order.

Cuban exiles strongly criticized the meeting, they interpreted the meeting as a way of legitimizing the totalitarian government of the island. Dozens of them protested on Via della Conciliazione, the wide street that leads to St. Peter’s Basilica.

In March 2023, 11 female Cuban political prisoners wrote a letter to the Pope in which they asked him to intercede for their freedom. A month earlier, Cardinal Beniamino Stella visited Cuba, met with high-ranking officials, and expressed his holiness’s desire was for those arrested after the demonstrations on July 11, 2021 be released.

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