The Cuban Conference of the Clergy (CONCUR) condemned on Tuesday the use of a “civilian” communist mob to attempt to trap the superior of the Catholic religious order the Daughters of Charity in Cuba in her home during Monday’s national protests against the regime.
“They tried to prevent Sister Nadieska Almeida [Miguel], the superior of the Daughters of Charity, from leaving her home yesterday,” the group revealed in a public statement posted to Facebook. “A group of ‘civilians’ and a representative of the Communist Party accosted her, threatening her without explanation.”
“She protested and went out to walk under their ‘vigilance,'” the statement noted.
Cuba experienced the largest wave of protests on Monday since the July 11 protests that rocked the island and attracted an estimated 187,000 people to manifest against the regime. Monday’s protests were notable in that a high number of Catholic clergy members participated despite increased persecution on the part of the Communist Party.
Cuba was a majority Catholic country before dictator Fidel Castro seized power in 1959. After 62 years, the regime remains officially atheist and often persecutes growing populations of both Christians and members of the Yoruba santería community.
“We denounce as a humiliating act and violation of human rights the return of acts of repudiation and systematic harassment towards anyone who indicates any critical feelings towards the government,” the CONCUR statement read, offering a prayer of peace for the country.
“Acts of repudiation” are mob attacks on the homes of dissidents organized by the state but led by private citizens, often members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), neighborhood civilian spy networks. In an act of repudiation, a violent mob surrounds a dissident’s home and starts yelling insults at the dissident and defacing their property. The acts sometimes become violent if the dissident confronts the mob.
Following President Barack Obama’s policy of concessions to the Castro regime, Cuba became increasingly emboldened in staging these acts, going as far as to disrupt a United Nations conference on political prisoners in Cuba with a diplomat-led “act of repudiation” against the organizers.
Sr. Almeida Miguel is among a growing number of prominent Catholic clergy members that have repeatedly condemned communism in public, an act typically prosecuted in the country under the crime of “disrespect.” The Catholic official had published a statement against the regime last week and similarly condemned the act of repudiation against herself in a public statement to Facebook following the incident.
“Yesterday, November 15, was an intense day,” Almeida Miguel wrote on Tuesday. “Many places were watched by soldiers, police, and plain-clothed agents. Of course there were organized acts of repudiation, people shipped in from one town to the next to scream, insult, and aggressively and vulgarly defend those who government and even manipulate us.”
Almeida Miguel explained that she attempted to leave her home at around 5:30 PM local time when a mob of 13 people approached her and declared, “You are banned from going outside today,” without explanation. The individuals were not overtly police or state officers. One woman claimed, without offering identification, that she was “a representative of the Party.”
The clergywoman did not budge, she wrong, and they finally let her out of her own home – “chaperoned the entire time, of course.”
“What are they so afraid of? What can an unarmed woman or man do? Walk, simply walk. That scares so many people?” Almeida Miguel wrote.
Catholic leaders denounced government persecution in anticipation of the protest Monday around the country. Father Alberto Reyes Pías, who has become a mainstay of protests in his native Camagüey province, published a video on Sunday stating that multiple priests received threats from the regime urging them to avoid joining protests on Monday or face state punishment.
“It has just been communicated to me that they called from the Office of Religious Affairs to inform that they are aware of the intention of Fathers Rolando Montes de Oca y Castor Álvarez Devesa to participate tomorrow in the November 15 protest together with our people,” Father Reyes Pías said. “And they informed that, if we participate in the protest, we will be detained. We are priests to preach the Gospel, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ speaks of freedom, of justice, of truth – that is what our people are asking for.”
“If being detained is the price of being coherent with preaching the Gospel, then so be it. God willing, tomorrow we will be accompanying our people,” Reyes promised.
Father Montes de Oca also denounced state repression on Tuesday in the form of an unmarked car following him around and state agents banning him from leaving his home on Monday.
Communist regime spokesman went on state television on Monday and celebrated the increase in acts of repudiation against non-violent civilians.
“The people also get tired and people have a right to defend [the revolution],” spokeswoman
Arleen Rodríguez Derivet said. “Don’t be afraid when you see acts of repudiation. When people see what is at risk and they know whose side they are on, logically, these things are going to happen.”
Rodríguez accused dissidents of staging their own “acts of repudiation” in the form of criticizing the regime online.
“We are sometimes too timid in our perception of things and we can forget how many of us have been literally lynched on social media for speaking up in defense of the Revolution,” she lamented.
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