Cuban Priest Alberto Reyes: Complaining About Blackouts Won't Change a Country, Freedom Comes at a Cost

Cuban priest Alberto Reyes, a staunch critic of the regime, emphasized that for a dictatorship, the crucial objective is not to win but to “not lose,” which is fundamentally different. This, he argues, is why there are no elections in Cuba, preventing the people from ousting the dictators.

The Father took to Facebook to publish a text asserting that the government is aware it has lost the hearts of Cubans; hence, it focuses on retaining power and suppressing any attempts at dissent. Reyes, from the Diocese of Camagüey, urged people not to play along with the dictatorship and reminded them that complaining at home won't change the situation. He emphasized that freedom has a price, and one must be willing to pay it to avoid becoming a country without a future.

Full Text of Alberto Reyes' Facebook Post

“I've been thinking… (LXXXI) by Alberto Reyes Pías

I've been thinking that for a dictatorship, the important thing is not to win. We already know the basic mechanism of modern dictatorships: they use the opportunities provided by democracy to gain power, and once in power, they destroy democracy to perpetuate their rule.

That's why, once they have 'won,' they no longer need to win again. They need not to lose, which is different.

Is there any doubt about the electoral fraud of Nicolás Maduro? Is there any doubt that the will of the Venezuelan people is for Maduro and his clique to leave power? No, no one doubts it, least of all them. But their interest is not in 'winning' elections they knew were impossible to win. Their interest is in not losing power over the people, not losing control over the country they have put at their service.

Since 1959, we haven't had elections in Cuba. We only have 'votings,' a national theater whose outcome doesn't reflect the will of the people. The power clan in Cuba is aware that over the years, their ideological proposal has increasingly diluted, leading to the greatest defeat a system can suffer: the defeat in the hearts of the people. The Cuban Revolution may have won the press, television, and propaganda, but it has lost the hearts of Cubans.

Therefore, the efforts of this system are never aimed at 'winning' because they know that regardless of what the people say, they will impose whatever they want. Their real interest is in not losing, not losing power, and making it clear that any attempt at questioning will be stopped, any attempt at dissent will be paralyzed.

That's why they mobilize immediately at any sign of protest: a poster on a wall, a simple peaceful demonstration by a civilian, or the mere announcement of such a demonstration, a call to public prayer, or the sound of a bell in the darkness.

They are terrified of losing control, afraid of ceasing to be the masters, the controllers of the will of the people. Like the biblical Pharaoh, they cannot afford to be without slaves.

They don't care about anything else. They don't care about the growing misery and shortage of basics, the hemorrhaging caused by continuous emigration, or the deepest yearnings of this people: their desires for freedom, progress, and democracy. They don't even care anymore about the collapse of the health and education systems, those bastions that served so well to sell their ideology to the world.

What can we do while we don't have elections, while we can't freely join opposition parties, while protesting in the streets remains a prelude to prison?

We can make it clear in our surroundings that they don't have us, that we won't applaud them, that we won't play their game, that we won't participate in what they propose.

Because you don't change a country's situation with complaints at home or curses during blackouts. Freedom has a price, and if we are not capable of paying the minimum price of saying what we think and believe, if we are not capable of paying the minimum price of truth, then we will forever be a country without a future.”