OUR SHARE OF REPRESSION FOR THE VISIT OF BENEDICT XVI / Mario Barroso

OUR SHARE OF REPRESSION FOR THE VISIT OF BENEDICT XVI / Mario Barroso
Mario Barroso, Translator: mlk

The 103rd Annual Assembly of the Baptist Association of Western Cuba, to
which I belong, concluded Saturday the 24th at 6:00pm. That was why my
wife Yoaxis and I found ourselves in Havana from the Monday before, the
19th of March, separated from our two girls and from the churches in
which we work in the center of the island. Nevertheless the news that
arrived from there was not very promising for our return. Because of
the visit of Benedict XVI something inconceivable was launched
throughout Cuba: a true human hunt that trapped as common criminals and
fearsome terrorists peaceful people who simply worried about the
deplorable human rights situation in their nation. Detained friends,
whole families fenced in, telephones cut off, people disappeared; this
was the news we got, and it was really happening behind the scenes in
contrast with the striking order on the plazas where the Pope said mass.
In such a situation and assuming that some of these repressive
variants or several at once could befall us, we decided to stay in the
capital against all risk.

We planned as varied as possible an itinerary that on one hand would
keep us moving constantly without any fixed site and that on the other
hand offered us the possibility of carrying out advantageous activities
in the midst of true secrecy. One of the most outstanding moments was
the religious service we participated in on the Havana Malecon with the
street church Victory Reach that as part of the international ministry
Victory Outreach rescues treasures in the midst of such darkness.

In our very own pilgrimage, giving time for the Pope to leave, and
trying to survive without being captured, at nightfall on Tuesday the
27th, we went to the home of a fellow pastor who took great pains in
preparing a tasty supper that we shared in lively fashion with his
family in his house full of neighborhood children as they prepared for
what they call a night of sleepover, completely outside the presence of
a Pope in Cuba.

As part of our rigorous schedule we did not permit ourselves to stay
more than three hours in the same place and from the house of our
brothers in faith we planned to move to an unfixed point on the Havana
Malecon from which we could try to contemplate the presence of the other
Cuba that also desired to be present amidst so much euphoria, that of
the diaspora, through a self ordained Lights of Liberty, that like the
other realized in December on the eve of the International Day of Human
Rights, would greet Cubans sequestered on this prison island through
fireworks.

The supper was almost finished when they knocked on the door of the
apartment in which we found ourselves. It was the State Security,
through two of its agents, who had found us and explicitly prohibited my
wife and me from participating the next day in the mass that Benedict
XVI would offer on the Plaza of the Revolution.

We explained to them that our presence in Havana after concluding the
103rd Annual Assembly of the Baptist Convention was not principally due
to our desire to participate in said mass, but to avoid this repression
that now finally made itself present here. Evidently the order that the
agents brought was to detain us both, as they were doing with hundreds
of others.

The brother that welcomed us and his family all gathered at the door and
prevented the detention by expressing to the agents that they were in
the best position to offer us their home for the night and to watch the
mass together the next day on television. The agents, a little
perturbed by the atmosphere of peace and harmony that was clearly
observed, and which in a certain manner they had interrupted, told us
that as far as they were concerned, there was no problem, but they had
to consult higher authorities.

Asking me to accompany them alone to the stairs of the building, which I
did without resisting, prepared for the ordained arrest, the only one of
the two agents who the whole time made use of words left me alone a
moment in the custody of the other and made a call, I suppose to the
command center of the operation, and after receiving confirmation
expressed to me that they accepted my presence in that house from which
I could not move while they maintained surveillance.

So it was that we spent a fun night of sleepover in the home of our
beloved brothers in faith while the agents kept watch. I cannot count
how many there were in total, but do affirm that there were many more
than the two who showed their faces. Something that powerfully called
our attention is that the kind of transport they used possessed private
license plates (rather than the plates identifying their vehicles as
government cars) and included at a minimum two modern, white cars and
another green one, plus a Suzuki motorcycle which could not be missed.

Our share of repression for the visit of Benedict XVI, in spite of
everything, was not among the highest. Just before returning from
Havana an abject group of all the repressed joined us in the house of a
young independent film maker, Ismael de Diego, grandson of the great man
of Cuban letters, Eliseo Diego, who also was victim, and there we found
out about the infinity of all kinds of abuses, even taking into account
that we who met that afternoon of Thursday the 29th constituted the most
fortunate as was demonstrated by the fact that we had been able to get
there even with our telephones not working.

The great majority of those excluded and repudiated found themselves
distant and handcuffed in provinces like ours, where commonly repression
is greater and unpunished. As a result of our meeting we agreed on a
document of denunciation that we signed and delivered to the Apostolic
Nuncio by means of the Catholic priest Jose Conrado, present among us,
also with his cell phone cut off, who dedicated words to us that
expressed his profound regret for what had happened to all of us as part
of the papal visit.

If anything, the Cuban visit by Benedict XVI showed that the brutal
repression within Cuba, and very alarmingly it seems for many in the
world also, is seen now as a normal and tolerable phenomenon, very
typical of a System considered unworkable even by its own actors, but
which nevertheless is granted recognition and consent.

This time the exaggerated operation, coinciding with the fifth-third
anniversary of the repressive organs of the State Security, has been
baptized as the Vow of Silence, and undoubtedly constitutes the biggest
exercise of this type that has taken place since the Black Spring of
2003, and many senses it is only as the preamble of future repressions
through which there could very well be, in contrast with this, victims
who are never found again.

Let us pray and work to prevent in Cuba a possible bloodbath so typical
of decadent regimes like this one. A peaceful transition to an
authentic democracy, as perfectible as it may be, constitutes an issue
of survival for many in the middle of a growing, dangerous impunity.

Translated by mlk

April 5 2012

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