The Irrational State

Photo:  Penúltimos Días

Lately, I catch the wave of expectation: through the mediation of Cardinal Jaime Ortega we learned that Raul Castro would be willing to release some political prisoners of conscience -- the sickest, I dare imagine. This dialogue between the Catholic Church and the General is not by chance, but the consequence of the many moral crimes that have characterized the "young president," or as we might call him, “The Crown Prince.” 

Who remembers at this point the winds of political and economic changes that many saw in the new but almost octogenarian president? Far from the expected reforms he brought us a prisoner of conscience killed on a hunger strike, an intransigent Guillermo Fariñas who is firm in his ideals and ready to follow in the footsteps of Zapata Tamayo, a considerable increase in the abuses of the political police against the Ladies in White and, in consequence, the logical repudiation by international public opinion, which the official media insist on calling "the media campaign against Cuba." 

I have no expectations of good deeds from a state whose very existence demonstrates, still, the totalitarianism that sustains it. But though the mediation of the Church has not brought the fruits of freedom, I am happy that the representatives of the Catholic Faith in my country have taken a public stand against the abuses committed, with total impunity, by the Cuban State. 

Perhaps my approval of the dialog alone, without waiting for the results, is bit naive, given that the objective of these negotiations would be to find a middle ground that benefits both opponents (Raul Castro vs. Freedom), and evidently the free have not been invited to the talks. The Party Central Committee has kept the file “political coherence” under lock and key for a long time, I hope the Church remembers to carefully weigh this detail.