CV NEWS FEED // The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba has called for an unprecedented national dialogue that will likely include the opposition to the Communist government, as a way to resolve the political and economic tensions rising in the Island.
NBC News reported that the island’s economic situation has resulted in food, medicine, power, and gas shortages, leading to protests and demands for political change.
Fr. Ariel Suárez, assistant secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, told NBC News that “if the different political actors agree, they can offer a space for dialogue, a meeting place, so that all the different positions … can help find concrete solutions that the people need.”
“I think we need to finally say with more clarity that Cubans can love Cuba with different visions, with different perspectives,” he continued. “And it’s important to put above all those differences, the love for Cuba and the desire to improve the life of its people now and in the future.”
Suárez added that the Conference is calling for faithful across the country to pray for Cuba “in order to find solutions so that we can get out of this distressing situation, so that the country’s officials can have wisdom and audacity when making decisions that favor the lives of the people.”
Suárez’s statement on national politics closely follows a previous attempt from the Diocese of Holguín to maintain peace in the country. The Diocese, headed by the Conference’s president Bishop Emilio Aranguren, released a statement calling for dialogue to resolve conflict between those with different political viewpoints.
“As a church, it corresponds to us to support the creation of spaces for dialogue where different sectors of society can participate to find paths that will help us forge ahead with a calm and hopeful disposition,” the statement read, according to NBC News.
NBC News added that the Catholic Church in Cuba has been key in brokering deals and peace negotiations in the past, despite a three-decade-long government discrimination against Catholics that began in the 1960s.
Under the current political system, the Communist government does not allow any kind of participation from “dissenters,” who are constantly accused of being “agents of Imperialism.”
But according to a recent report published by The Conversation, “Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis in 30 years.”
“Since 2020, Cubans have suffered falling wages, deteriorating public services, regular power outages, severe shortages and a growing black market. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country,” the report says.
