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NEWS
The Wall Street Journal / The Americas
No Absolution for Castro's Regime
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY / Mary.O'Grady@wsj.com
Villa Marista, Cuba's renowned state security headquarters in Havana, is
a grim symbol of state repression, where the regime has perfected its
art of interrogation and its brutal incarceration techniques.
But Villa Marista wasn't always a torture chamber. Before the
Revolution, the building was a Marist Brothers school. When Fidel Castro
decided that Marxism would best serve his interests, he quashed the
Church by confiscating its property and exiling, imprisoning or driving
underground the clergy. The conversion of the Villa Marista school from
a Catholic sanctuary into a secret-police center served as a metaphor
for all that Cubans were to endure.
In the past decade, the Cuban Church has regained some space, with Pope
John Paul II's 1998 visit to the island suggesting a new, minimal
legitimacy. Yet after the pontiff left Cuba, Fidel's actions made it
clear that he had hosted the Holy Father only as a public relations
stunt, something to relieve the intense international pressure that had
been bearing down on him.
What the dictator may not have calculated though was what the pontiff
would leave behind. Since 1998 Cuba's dissident movement has swelled,
led largely by Catholics and other Christians who exhibit an enormous
capacity for bravery.
The most famous of these is Oswaldo Paya who leads the Varela Project
for reform. Many others have suffered torturous confinement, but not in
vain. Their incarcerations have severely damaged Cuba's world image and
alienated much of the previously sympathetic international left. The
fallout has also included a split inside the regime, with military
entrepreneurs unhappy about the financial costs of bad press to their
businesses.
Now Cuba's bishops are pushing further. In a paper released on Sept. 8,
they have openly condemned the regime. "In Cuba," writes Vatican-watcher
Sandro Magister in Italy's online magazine Chiesa, "the document is
being circulated clandestinely and one can understand why: it's the most
explicit and reasoned act of accusation the bishops of the island have
ever made, unanimously, against the regime of Fidel Castro. And Castro,
so far, has not replied."
Indeed, the bishop's document, which is posted in its entirety, in
Spanish, on the Miami Archdioscese Web site, La Voz Catolica, doesn't
mince words: "Notwithstanding the new language and the space that
appeared to open during the days of the visit of the Holy Father," the
bishops write, "we have seen almost immediately after it, the beginning
of an apparent process of revision that does not favor the aspirations
of pluralism, tolerance and opening that we discerned on the national
horizon."
The parallels to Poland here are hard to ignore, even taking into
account the differences between that devoutly Catholic country and Cuba
with its complicated history linking Spanish colonialism and the Church.
The pope's visits to Poland revitalized an important nongovernmental
institutional force. That spiritual and moral energy moved more deeply
through society and gave vitality to another important institution:
Poland's labor movement. Solidarity eventually toppled the regime.
There is little doubt that, in a similar way, Cuban Catholics and civil
society more broadly have found a voice since the papal visit, and been
inspired to accept suffering in the struggle for freedom. It is their
willingness to stand up that has drawn the world's attention.
There are now hundreds of political prisoners, many of whom are
Christians, all of whom are incarcerated in grossly inhumane conditions.
Every one of them is a profile in courage and an important part of the
whole.
Take for example Jorge Luis Antunez, who turns 39 years old today, Cuban
Independence Day. He has been in prison since 1990, when he was first
charged with "oral enemy propaganda." The story of this extraordinarily
intelligent young Catholic man and his conscientious battle against the
regime is remarkable.
Mr. Antunez was born into humble circumstances in the town of Placetas.
He was sent away to a state boarding school in the countryside but the
indoctrination he received there apparently didn't take. As he has
written: "My first political uneasiness emerged in high school when I
had the happiness to know, even in part, some articles from the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to discern the acute lack of
rights and freedoms that Cubans are subjected to. These and other things
made me reject the doctrine and demagoguery that was imparted in class .
. . ."
Independent thinking meant Mr. Antunez had little chance of advancing in
the Cuban system and becoming a lawyer as he had hoped. To support his
household and his sick mother, he resigned himself to a life as a
laborer. Still, he could not ignore the injustices of the regime. His
public denunciations of the Cuban model and calls for Eastern
European-style reform landed him in prison.
Afro-Cubans are supposed to be especially grateful to the regime, so Mr.
Antunez's dissidence does not sit well with Fidel or his henchmen. He
has been beaten repeatedly and locked in punishment dungeons without
water. He has testified that he once heard a Cuban doctor, assigned to
treat his wounds, announce "This Antunez's life is worthless because he
is a black counterrevolutionary. He should pray to God he doesn't fall
into my hands."
When his mother was dying Mr. Antunez requested permission to visit her.
He was denied this but did manage to escape from jail in an attempt to
reach her. State security got to her first and told her that should her
son come to the house, he would be shot on sight. He did not see her,
was eventually captured and she has since died.
Mr. Antunez may be seriously ill. According to his family, he has
hypoglycemia, kidney problems, and respiratory difficulties. A cyst has
been discovered on his lung. Yet after moving their ailing captive to
Ariza prison in Cien Fuegos recently, authorities told his family that
his medical records have been lost.
If the Church sees a chance to raise its voice today it is due in some
part to the courage of Mr. Antunez, his fellow dissidents, and the
international pressure they are producing. What's needed now for the
cause of Cuban freedom to succeed is more of both.
Updated October 10, 2003
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