Monday, May 11, 2015

My Minutes With the Pope

My Minutes With the Pope / Jeovany Jimenez Vega
Posted on May 10, 2015

Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 9 May 2015 — What would I say to Pope Francis if I
could speak with him minutes before his meeting with Raúl Castro?* If
Jesus came into the world to save the impure, to sit also at the table
of the Pharisees (those with souls most contaminated by the splinter of
evil), what could I say to His Holiness that would convey to him all the
pain of my people, and advise him of the true dimension of disaster
through which my country lives?

Tomorrow* the Pope will face the representative of a deformed creation
made up to fool the world about its true wretched nature, which hides
its true face behind curtains splattered with the blood and suffering of
my people. Raul Castro represents the longest-running, most perfidious
and subtle dictatorship known in the Americas, whose sinister side is
known only by the humble man of miserable means who dares not speak up
for fear of certain reprisals; or the censored journalist confronting
taboo subjects; or the ethical writer marginalized by an apostate
pseudo-intellectualism who, like a prostitute, traded in his dignity for
status**; or the civic activist trampled-on for defending her truths.

This Raúl Castro–at once President, Prime Minister, and Secretary
General of the only legal party in my country–is the same one who orders
or permits every threat, raid, repudiation rally or beating visited with
impunity upon peaceful members of the opposition, every arbitrary
detention and prison sentence levied without charges, as well as the
constant harassment of a dissident movement not officially recognized
but which he fears in his bones.

In short, Raúl Castro is the one ultimately responsible, along with
Fidel Castro, for every one of the thousands of abuses that confirms the
totalitarian-despotic nature of the regime that he represents. This man
does not represent the people of Cuba because he was not elected in a
democratic process, because his fear of the Cuban people keeps him from
convening a plebiscite. By the same token, his entourage of minions
never participate in public debates under equivalent conditions, and
just recently, in Panama, offered to the world the most shameful and
caveman-like lesson in incivility.

This man will give assurances that his government cares about the
world's poor when in reality, on dozens of official medical missions, he
keeps an army of semi-slaves captive in the most despicable state of
deprivation of their rights. To say that the primary source of income
for the dictatorship is a supposed philanthropic venture, clearly
typifies its root strategy: its monumental demagoguery.

In worldwide forums, the government insists that "differences be
respected," yet in Cuba it routinely thrashes dissidents and opponents.
While outside the Island it applauds the people's egalitarian right to
technology, at home it denies us free access to the Internet. While it
denounces other governments' policies of domestic espionage, it keeps my
people defenseless against the severe and constant vigilance of the
political police. While in forums it voices complaints against the
injustices of "savage capitalism," it brutally exploits its own workers,
and criticizes neoliberal stopgap measures while it plays the market
with astronimical prices and makes daily life unsustainably expensive
for the average citizen.

His Holiness should know that this charmless man sustains his government
by the people's fear, by systematic deception, by fomenting the most
abject hatred of dissent, by the insolent satiation of the greed and
basest instincts of his accomplices in power, by the bribery and
blackmail perpretrated by all of his followers, and by the brute force
thrust unmercifully against any who deviate from his commands.

His Holiness should know that this man represents the neo-bourgeoisie
tied to power on the Island and not to the people of Cuba. All of the
Holy Father's gestures to reconcile this dictatorship with the world do
not benefit the wellbeing of the Cuban people as long as our country is
not free, and all the riches generated by these changes will inexorably
end up in thehands of that indolent elite that despises us.

All this would I tell Jorge Mario Bergoglio [Francis' name before he
became Pope] prior to his visit with this little man–or, perhaps
overwhelmed by a pain that I admit I am incapable of conveying in a few
minutes, I would manage only to ask for his most humble prayer for
retribution here on earth on the dark souls of all tyrants.

View Letter to Pope Benedict XVI

Translator's Notes:

* This post was written prior to Raúl Castro's scheduled meeting with
Pope Francis at the Vatican, which took place on Sunday, May 10, 2015.

** Here, the writer is referring to author and former Cuban Culture
Minister Abel Prieto, who denounced the presence of independent civil
society representatives at the Summit of the Americas in March, 2015.
Various members of the Cuban opposition have expressed disappointment
over Prieto's perceived selling-out to the regime. This sentiment is
exemplified in this post by another independent Cuban blogger.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Source: My Minutes With the Pope / Jeovany Jimenez Vega | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/my-minutes-with-the-pope-jeovany-jimenez-vega/

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