Cuban Priest Alberto Reyes Criticizes Endless Oppression of the People

Alberto Reyes, a respected figure within Cuba's Catholic Church, has drawn parallels between today's political and social climate and the final days of Fulgencio Batista's rule. He argues that the current regime is even more destructive, leaving the population not just oppressed, but also hungry, institutionally broken, and devoid of hope.

In a poignant Facebook post, Reyes highlighted that unlike Batista's dictatorship, where power usurpation was the main issue, the present regime's impact extends deeply into daily life. He states that social discontent, government rejection, fear of repression, and a strong desire for radical change dominate the atmosphere in Cuba today.

The communist regime, he says, has led to hospitals without medicine, frequent blackouts, water and fuel shortages, inadequate wages, neglected elderly, silenced artists, and a bleak future for professionals. "Are they blind and unaware? Are they foolish, seeing but not understanding? Or do they see, understand, but have lost the compassion that makes them human?" asks Reyes, addressing those in power with a firm tone.

CiberCuba shared the full text of Alberto Reyes Pías's publication:

"I’ve been reflecting…

As a child, I often heard about the atmosphere during Batista's final days, and it feels as if those times have returned. Everywhere you go, the sentiment is the same: social dissatisfaction, rejection of the government, fear of repression, and above all, a profound, genuine desire for radical change, for the end of a system that has become a nightmare.

However, there are differences. Under Batista, the Problem—with a capital P—was the usurpation of power, the disdain for a dictator who seized control, ignoring the people's will. The struggle against Batista was aimed at restoring democracy and the freedoms it brings.

Beyond that, life was not only possible but, in many places, the issues were those of excess abundance and the indifference toward the poor that it breeds.

Today, we've returned to a similar political point: rejecting another tyranny, another dictatorship, with the same desire to reclaim democracy and freedom.

But today, the situation is more dire. Sister Nadieska Almeida, a Daughter of Charity, has published one of the most comprehensive analyses of present-day Cuba, the Cuba hidden behind news broadcasts that mock our intelligence, extravagant ministerial trips, or the smoke of cigars.

Sister Nadieska couldn't have been more thorough and clear. What is stealing our lives today, besides a tyrannical political system? Widespread hunger, the suffering of political prisoners and their families, lack of electricity, patients without medicine, shortages in medical supplies at hospitals, water scarcity, struggling agriculture, absence of religious freedom, fuel shortages, unprotected workers, absurd mandatory military service, insecurity for the elderly, meager wages, censorship of artists, inability to afford proper burials, children without childhoods, no treatment for psychiatric patients, retirees without resources, frustrated professionals, continuous lies and empty promises, mockery of the people's dignity, gag laws, and threats of imprisonment and death.

And I ask myself: are those in power blind and unable to see? Are they foolish, seeing but not understanding? Or do they see, understand, yet have lost the compassion that makes them human, choosing evil, like Cain, believing they are not their brother's keeper?

In any case, I join Sister Nadieska's call to action, her 'Enough is enough!' to our own, because there is no justification for endlessly crushing an entire nation. The time has come, it is past time, for this to end once and for all."