The Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA) expresses its solidarity with Cuba\u2019s dissidents, members of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), who were prevented by the Cuban government from freely participating in the religious activities scheduled as part of Pope Francis\u2019s visit to Cuba.<\/p>\n
The ODCA regrets the Cuban regime\u2019s employment of a range of repressive and intimidation mechanisms to prevent the participation by MCL leaders and Human Rights activists in religious activities, which represents a violation of both their rights of conscience and freedom of movement, and discrimination, as other citizens were authorized to participate in the events.<\/p>\n
The ODCA received reports of arrests, disconnected telephones and blockaded houses to prevent dissidents from organizing or reaching the sites where the religious ceremonies were held, in Havana, Holgu\u00edn and Santiago de Cuba.<\/p>\n
The police and paramilitary collaborators surrounded the homes of numerous critics of the government, organizing a siege to prevent them from freely attending the mass led by the Pontiff, or moving about freely. This intimidation tactic, as well as arrests for brief periods of time, are regular practices that have been denounced for several years by Human Rights organizations.<\/p>\n
We share here the words of a young Cuban who asked for the Pope\u2019s help to build a Cuba through the participation of all Cubans, without exception: \u201cHelp us, Holy Father, to be young people able to cooperate with those who think differently, and not to confine ourselves behind religious or ideological walls; to overcome individualism and indifference, great evils plaguing Cuban life. And may we, when we leave here, be able to perceive the signs of our times, and join hands to build a Cuba as envisioned by our national hero, Jose Mart\u00ed: with everyone, and for everyone\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
We reiterate our solidarity with the Human Rights activists and members of the MCL who continue to suffer repressive and intimidation measures, among them Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepci\u00f3n, Vice-president of the ODCA and the National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement; Armando Pe\u00f1a Guzm\u00e1n, Coordinator of the MCL in Las Tunas; Ibars Gonz\u00e1lez, from Sagua la Grande; Ros\u00e1 Mar\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez and Yordan Mari\u00f1o, in Havana, amongst many others.<\/p>\n
We call upon our parties and Human Rights organizations to demand an end to these Human Rights violations, and to be vigilant for possible retaliatory actions that may affect members of the MCL or any Cubans for their political convictions or religious faith.<\/p>\n
The ODCA reaffirms that it is only through freedom, democracy and a total respect for Human Rights that the people of Cuba will be able to build a country for all its people.<\/p>\n
JORGE OCEJO MORENO<\/p>\n
ODCA PRESIDENT<\/p>\n
FRANCISCO JAVIER JARA ODCA EXECUTIVE SECRETARY<\/p>\n
Mexico City, 22 September 2015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA) expresses its solidarity with Cuba\u2019s dissidents, members of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), who were prevented by the Cuban government from freely participating in the religious activities scheduled as part of Pope Francis\u2019s visit to Cuba. The ODCA regrets the Cuban regime\u2019s employment of a range of repressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-ct"],"acf":{"pdf_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idc-cdi.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}