CUBA NEEDS TO REGAIN ITS CHRISTIAN SOUL Print

 

CUBA NEEDS TO REGAIN ITS CHRISTIAN SOUL

OSCAR ELIAS BISCET

PRESIDENT OF THE LAWTON FOUNDATION FOR THE HUMAS RIGHTS

 

When the prison gates opened, as I waited in the police car I touched the pocket on my shirt and smiled. Perhaps the soldier who was guarding me was able to understand by seeing my emotional state because I was being furloughed after eight years in prison. I had a document in my pocket which exonerated me from my unjust imprisonment, but it could not compare to God’s presence in my mind and in my heart.

Then, I recalled God’s words to Abraham, “Is there anything too marvelous for the Lord to do?” Of course not, and I continued smiling with satisfaction and joy. That day, March 11, 2011, I was welcomed home by my loving wife, Elsa Morejón, and my elderly parents, as well as relatives and friends.

During that first day and the others that followed, I was interviewed by the foreign press and radio as well as the Cuban independent journalists. All of them asked if the release of political prisoners signaled the end of repression in Cuba. I answered no, and added that the state imposed terror would increase because we are experiencing the final phase of the Castro regime.

According to Nathan Sharansky, a Soviet intellectual and former political prisoner, “two laws can be formulated in relation to a society of fear: The first one is that the member of double thinkers in a society of fear increases with time; the second one is that the more restrictive a fear society is, the quicker the number of double thinkers in the society will increase.” This is what is happening in my homeland where terror has been exacerbated in this last trimester:

The harassment and beatings of peaceful dissidents, including women.

The torture, inhumane and cruel treatment of Reina Tamayo, the mother of martyr, Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

The arrest of more than 200 peaceful dissidents.

The extrajudicial assassination of activist Juan Wilfredo Soto García.

The imprisonment of six dissidents sanctioned with 3 to 5 year prison terms for making use of freedom of thought and speech.

Pedro Pablo Olivar, member of the Asamblea Provincial del Poder Popular (Provincial Assembly of the Popular Party,) was expelled from the above mentioned Assembly for relating with dissidents.

The deportation of the remains of Orlando Zapata Tamayo along with his family and relatives.

Campaigns in the government controlled media to discredit well known dissidents: Yoani Sánchez, Dagoberto Valdés and Oscar Elías Biscet.

The Castro-Stalinist regime, in its intent to perpetuate itself in power is promoting non socialist laws to survive the economic crisis it faces. The Congreso del Partido Comunista (Congress of the Communist Party) approved the alignments to update the economy, allowing small enterprises with limitations on the employees and competition and imposing high taxes that stop the initiatives.

This last congress once again forgot the human dignity of Cubans since no laws were passed in favor of inalienable human rights. They also had to admit the racial discrimination and generalized corruption that is rampant in their socialist society. They made miniscule changes with regards to term limits to positions in the administrative power and attempted to change the communist regime from a personal dictatorship to a party dictatorship which amounts to a farce. But they are not fooling anyone since the repression is the same.

On the other hand, even though Cubans live in a society of fear, the opposition has adhered to and consolidated based on the principles of non violent struggle for civil rights. The theories of Henry Thoreau, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Gene Sharp, which are considered subversive by the regime, are the models of this nonviolent resistance movement. Therefore, the nonviolent revolutions of Northern Africa and the Middle East will soon appear in Latin American countries to topple their autocratic governments, especially the ones in Cuba and Venezuela.

Overseas, Cuban exiles have been a solid and implacable pillar in the struggle for Cuba’s freedom. The Cuban American members of Congress have played an extraordinary role in promoting the cause for freedom for Cuba. An example of this are the reports of the Foreign Policy Committees regarding the risk of contamination and the violation of law with reference to the embargo related to the drilling of oil wells in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico belonging to Cuba and the condemnation of Castro due to his convenient and false repentance of his anti-Semitism.

However, the most moving was the moral support and patriotic fervor with which the remains of a hero, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, were received in Miami. The remains of martyr Zapata were honored by the exiles in marked contrast with the solitary farewell given him on the Island. We owe you our honor friend and compatriot. The death of any Cuban away from his homeland saddens me and in the past 3 months several people who gave their all for the good of the nation have passed away such as: Adolfo Rivero Caro, Nicolás Quintana, and Mirta de Perales. God rest their soul.

Personally, I am recovering my health, and I spend time on the development of my intellect. The first book I read after my release from prison was by Nathan Sharansky who gave it to me with a beautiful impressive dedication. Thank you, friend Nathan. Your book has enriched me spiritually, and it will help me support my people in their struggle for freedom. With regards to other places, I condemn the beatings the Spanish socialists gave to peaceful young people claiming their rights peacefully. I consider it an action similar to those of dictatorships that repress the freedom of expression of its citizens.

Here, in my homeland, on June 4th, there was a proclamation “Declaración de El Roque” rubricated by the latest former political prisoners of the Black Spring, period of the arrests of the 75, their decision to find expeditious ways in common to bring about the democratization and freedom of the total maturity of the Cuban dissidence.

 

As far as the Castro-Stalinist regime goes, we all know it is submerged in a deep economic political, social and moral crisis. The hierarchy has no viable solution for it. After having lived almost half a century promoting a radical atheism and harassing its citizens, they now clamor to the God of the Bible for blessings. To that end, they seek the collaboration of some priests of the Christian and Jewish churches congregations. In this case, the regime’s hierarchy should take into account Judeo Christian teachings when they state: “I, Yahweh.” “I, the Lord alone probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds” Jeremiah 17:10 (New American Bible.)

Keep this book of the law on your lips. Recite by day and by night, so that you may observe carefully all that is written in it; then you will successfully attain your goal. Joshua 1:8. When he is enthroned in his kingdom, he shall have copy of this law made from the scroll that is in the custody of the priests. He shall keep it with him and read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord, his God, and to heed and fulfill all the words this law and these statutes. Deuteronomy 17: 18-20.

When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you. Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil […] Isaiah 1:15-20. But if you refuse and resist, the sword shall consume you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken! In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it, Isaiah 2:2.

Cuba needs urgent changes in all aspects of life, economical, political, social, cultural ethical and moral. Nevertheless, the most needed change is the recovery of the nation’s Christian soul. Then we will be able to say as the biblical poet: For with you is the fountain of life, and in light we see light. Psalm 36:10.