MIAMI, United States. – Cuban priest Alberto Reyes said in a recent interview with Marti News that the Island is going through one of the hardest times in recent years. During his conversation with journalist Mario Pentón in MiamiReyes expressed his hope that this is a “terminal moment” for the current political system on the island, given the adverse conditions facing the Cuban people.
“It would seem, and it is my hope, that this is a terminal moment, because it is very difficult,” said the priest of the Archdiocese of Camagüey, referring to the serious situation on the Island, where “food is a problem,” prices are “skyrocketing,” and public transportation does not work, while access to medicines is “disastrous.”
Reyes illustrated the seriousness of the situation with the testimony of a father whose 14-year-old son died from an untreated infection due to the lack of antibiotics on the island. “That is the dramatic situation of our people,” he stressed.
The priest also pointed out that, from a spiritual point of view, the Cuban people face “a lot of despair” and an emotional “collapse.” Government repression has generated a climate of fear among citizens, and according to Reyes, “the government is afraid, because it knows it has lost the heart of the people.”
He added that this is a time of “pure and hard dictatorship” in which the government continues to “subjugate a people who do not want it.”
Reyes also lamented the mass exodus of Cubans in the last three years and said that many churches have been emptied. He also questioned the approach of the Cuban government, whose only priority seems to be to stay in power: “The people should look for a way out… and if they protest, we will repress them.”
Finally, Reyes called on Cuban exiles to continue helping their compatriots on the island. “There are people who live in insurmountable poverty. I believe that the diaspora can do a lot,” he said.
The priest from Camagüey is one of the voices of the Catholic Church on the Island most critical of the regime. In June of this year lament repression directed by the authorities towards the people themselves.
Reyes Pías also addressed the repressors, reminding them that they may be able to escape to free lands or go unnoticed, but that they will “never” be able to escape from their conscience, “from the one that tells you today, while you strike, that you are taking the lives of your own people.”
