Leonardo Fernández Otaño, forced into exile, writes a letter to his parents. This will be the second year he will not be able to celebrate Christmas in Cuba.
Leonardo M. Fernández Otaño
The 27N should be understood as an event of articulation and the beginning of a civic cycle and not as a concrete action that would end with a stroke of a pen more than six decades of totalitarianism.
On November 28, 2023, my colleague Alina Barbara Lopez Hernandez will be taken to court in Matanzas, in a summary judgement for a crime that not even her accusers believe: contempt.
In August 2023, Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime seized the Central American University (UCA) in Managua, expropriated the building where religious members working at the educational center were living and annulled the legal status that allowed the Society of Jesus to run the financial side of the institution.
Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel arrived at the Vatican on June 20, 2023. The meeting was scheduled as part of a tour the leader would make to Italy, Serbia and France. Diaz-Canel held a meeting with Pope Francis and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
My friend’s story is similar to that of so many mothers, couples, grandmothers and fathers who have been separated from their children.
One goal of Cardinal Stella's trip has a humanitarian character and is based on the liberation of the political prisoners of 11J. Upon leaving the University of Havana, the prelate told the press: "it is important that the young people who once expressed their thoughts in the way we know can return to their homes".
Christmas was one of the religious holidays that, during the climax of the totalitarian state in Cuba, was suppressed from the public space in 1969.
Father David Pantaleón Rosario, regional superior of the Jesuits in Cuba, was expelled from the country. This is not an isolated event, but the result of a long process of government monitoring of the order due to its accompaniment of civil society and citizens.