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International Affairs
The Ambassador’s Lie & the Martyrs’ Blood
Armando Valladares
On February 8, 2010, the Catholic agency Zenit released an interview with the Communist Cuban Ambassador to the Holy See, Eduardo Delgado Bermudez.
Above, Delgado at the Vatican; yesterday he was spreading the Communist Revolution in Cuba, below
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In my opinion, his statements were marked by lies and frauds, unchanging characteristics of that same ideological system which Pope Pius XI qualified as “satanic” and “intrinsically evil.” Card. Ratzinger, today Benedict XVI, also described it as “the shame of our times.”
Ambassador Delgado stated that “in Cuba there is religious liberty” and that “article 55 of the Constitution affirms that liberty of conscience and religion is recognized, respected and guaranteed.”
The Cuban Constitution does in fact state that religious liberty is recognized, respected and guaranteed. Nonetheless, this statement is nothing but the serpent’s hiss that hypnotizes the victim to prepare it for its venomous bite. Indeed, a few lines further, article 62 greatly restricts that liberty when it warns that “none of the liberties” of the Constitution are recognized if they are contrary to “the existence and objectives of the Socialist State or the decision of the Cuban people to build Socialism and Communism.” An explicit threat is added: “Violation of this principle can be punished by law.”
In a recent article, I commented on the surprising address of Benedict XVI upon receiving the credentials of Ambassador Delgado Bermudez at the Vatican. There I stressed that article 62 of the Cuban Constitution is the tourniquet that suppresses supposed liberties - especially religious liberty - treacherously offered to the inhabitants of the Island-prison.
In Cuba there has never been any hesitation to execute this threat of punishment. Thousands of opponents to the regime have experienced this reality - being shot by firing squads at the infamous Killing Wall [paredón] while others were jailed – and many more are still there. To this date, mothers, wives and sisters of political prisoners - the White Ladies - are regularly beaten in the streets of La Habana. Recently violence has been used also against Internet bloggers.
In Little Havana, Florida, a monument commemorates the Cuban martyrs |
From the juridical and constitutional point of view, the ‘liberty’ of Cuban Catholics is similar to that of a prisoner’s freedom to walk in the prison courtyard and do jobs for its internal administration. According to Dr. Claudio Benedi, a Cuban Catholic jurist, one of the greatest “embargos” suffered by a people during the 20th and 21st centuries is the institutional violation of every right and liberty by the Communist government in Cuba.
The persecutory character of those articles of the Constitution - so obvious to anyone - does not seem to attract the attention of international observers, including the Vatican diplomats. An enigmatic silence covers and protects the fraudulent politics of Castro against Cuban Catholics.
Ambassador Delgado Bermudez is a man who held key positions in the Cuban diplomatic corps since the beginning of its Revolution (1959). For many years he has helped to export those bloody Communist methods to Latin America, Africa and Asia. Now, in his interview with Zenit, he tries to cover himself, flatly denying the existence of any religious persecution.
On this topic, it is opportune to recall that in October 1999 a delegation of Cuban refugees delivered a petition addressed to John Paul II to the Vatican Secretary of State. Signed by many Cuban personages, it was titled, “Holy Father, End the Silence about the Cuban Martyrs, Victims of Communism.” The document requested that a process of beatification be initiated for those youth who had been shot to death at the Killing Wall shouting Viva Cristo Rey! Abajo el Communism! [Long live Christ the King! Down with Communism!].
Piteira, 23, martyred by Communists in Spain |
These expressions of faith and courage I heard with my own ears – as did other political prisoners who were in the prison of La Cabaña. On October 14, 2009 this petition of Cuban refugees was delivered to that eminent Vatican Prelate, who signed a certificate of receipt.
On the other hand, few know that there is a Cuban who has already been beatified: José Lopez Piteira, a martyr killed by the Communists in the Spanish Civil War. He was an Augustinian religious born on February 2, 1912 in the city of Jatibonico in Camaguey County (Cuba) and was martyred on November 30, 1936 in Paracuelos del Jarama, Spain.
He was taken prisoner along with 100 other religious. His life could have been spared because he was a foreigner, but he chose not to abandon his fellow Catholics. On October 28, 2007 he was beatified in Rome with 498 other victims of Spanish Communism.
The beatification of another Cuban religious of the Order of St. John of God is also in the works. Jaime Oscar Valdes, age 45, was martyred on August 7, 1936, also in Spain. He was killed after being kidnapped by Communists from Malvarrosa Hospital in Valencia, where he had been working for 22 years.
Nothing could be more timely and necessary than the canonization of those young men who became martyrs in Cuba at the hands of the Communists. The blood of martyrs has always been the seed of new Christians. Cuba and her refugees need seeds from which authentic Christians will sprout - to overcome 50 years of Communist lies and frauds and to honor the blood shed for our Catholic Faith.
Posted March 1, 2010
Armando Valladares, a former Cuban political prisoner,
was U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
during the Reagan and Bush administrations.
Contact him at:
Armandovalladares2005@yahoo.es
Related Topics of Interest
Beatification of Castro’s Internationalism?
Benedict's Red Advent
Benedict XVI and Bertone’s Trip to Cuba
Ignoring the Evil of Communism in Cuba
In Cuba Card. Bertone Attacks American Embargo
Bertone and the Castro's Fraudulent Religious Policy
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