“I love seeing him here, I love that he came!” the convalescent Pope Francisco has received in a 40-minute audience the Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, five months after his envoy to the island demanded the release of the 1,037 political prisoners locked up in the dungeons of the revolution.
“They focused on the situation in the country and on the contribution offered by the Church, especially in the field of charity,” the minister said in a statement. Vaticanin addition to underlining the supposed commitment to “always promote the common good”.
Not an official word about the 1,037 political prisoners, according to figures from Prisoners Defenders (PD). Among them are also dozens of Catholics and about thirty minors. “We address the current Cuban reality, in particular the severe impact on our population of the intensified economic blockade. I appreciated your signs of closeness,” said Raúl Castro’s appointee, whose main ally in Central America, Daniel Ortega, is kept in a punishment cell Bishop Rolando Álvarez, while viciously persecuting the Catholic Church.
“It could be argued that the Church’s diplomacy seeks, without fanfare, to release the hundreds of political prisoners in Cuba. The problem is that these requests, for months, remain unanswered. New prisoners are added every month, because activism and repression They do not stop. The regime holds them hostage to negotiate with the United States. In a short time we will see if Francisco now achieves something different,” historian Armando Chaguaceda tells EL MUNDO.
It’s not just about prisoners. The harassment suffered by priests and faithful in Nicaragua also occurs, to a lesser extent, on the island. According to the survey that the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) will make public, 68% of believers believe that the government Office of Religious Affairs of Cuba represses their rights.