IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON AND FIDEL CASTRO...AMEN

For Cardinal Ortega there is complete "peace and tranquility" in Cuba

This week, Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino erased the permanent smile from his face, at least for a little while, in order to be interviewed by the Spanish newspaper "El País" about the situation in the island.

"At this delicate moment, Cuba needs dialogue, not pressure," Ortega told El País. The good cardinal didn't say how was it possible for "Cuba" to dialogue, when Cubans have been forced to keep their mouths shut for almost 50 years, or face the consequences.

During his interview with El País, Ortega emphasized three words" "build bridges," "dialogue" and "reconciliation." Not a word about freedom, about human rights, about those languishing in Castro's Gulag, or about the fascist mobs that attacked the Ladies in White and dissidents like Gullermo Fariñas, Marta Beatriz Roque and others.

"The road is the dialogue, with pressure you don't get anywhere," said Ortega, who has been "dialoguing" with the dictatorship for years without getting anywhere.

More than nine years after the visit by the Pope and after a number of very expensive dinners where the dictator and his puppets have "dialogued" with Ortega and several envoys from the Vatican, the repression being suffered by the Cuban people has gotten worse.

This is due to the fact that Cardinal Ortega has not been dialoguing with Castro, because the dictator only allows a "monologue" not a "dialogue." Castro talks and talks, the cardinal smiles and smiles and the Cuban people suffer and suffer.

"We should be pleased that in this new situation we have been able to have complete tranquility," Ortega told El País. I guess that Ortega has been too busy preparing for his next "dialogue" session with Raul, to hear about the fascist mobs that attacked the Ladies in White for marching, after attending Mass in a Catholic church, to ask for the release of their relatives who are languishing in Castro's jails. And no one can expect the cardinal to know about the beating suffered by Guillermo Fariñas for the only crime of asking to have access to the Internet.

Or maybe Ortega knows about these incidents, but simply doesn't care. It seems that as long as Castro and his thugs are in absolute control, there is "tranquility" in Cuba as far as the cardinal is concerned.

"At the beginning, when the Cuban president got sick, many people believed in the possibility of an internal crisis that could have placed our country in a difficult position. The bishops made public then our wishes that no foreign interference and no kind of internal crisis should alter the peace and tranquility of our people. That is what has happened and it is the best," Ortega told El País. However, the cardinal didn't say when it was that Castro was elected "president" of Cuba or what "peace and tranquility" have Cubans enjoyed since one dictator was replaced by another.

Referring to the recent trip by a group of American lawmakers who favor the end of the sanctions against the Castro regime, Ortega called them "a group of very pragmatic politicians, with a very realistic vision." According to him, eliminating the sanctions will help those Cubans who want to send aid to their families and those in Cuba who are expecting such aid. And what about freedom, human rights, political prisoners, right to choose the type of government and a real president for Cuba? Not a word, because that would upset Ortega's vision of "tranquility." ---FROM www.therealcuba.com/index.htm