Many will be falling all over themselves to congratulate Cardinal Jaime Ortega for negotiating with the Castro dictatorship the release of Guido Sigler Amaya and Angel Moya, two of the 11 prisoners of conscience whose release had been denied for their refusal to accept banishment as a condition. Ortega will most likely be heralded as a hero, and portrayed as a courageous defender of human rights for confronting the Cuban regime.
In reality, Ortega is nothing more than a tool of the tyrannical dictatorship. He is a coward who has allowed himself and the Church to be used as another arm of repression for the regime, providing political cover for a vile dictatorship. He has done this in return for certain privileges that have come at the cost of the Church’s dignity, and the dignity of the Cuban people.
The real heroes in this Greek tragedy are the peaceful Cuban pro-democracy activists and prisoners of conscience who have never betrayed their commitment to freedom. While Cardinal Ortega plots the next political move with Raul Castro over a glass of wine and fine imported cheese, the real heroes in Cuba are being beaten, harassed, and imprisoned by State Security for standing firm by their ideals. While Archbishop Ortega travels the world and lobbies Washington D.C. to lift the embargo against Cuba’s dictatorship, the real heroes in Cuba are refusing to bow down to the Castro regime, regardless of the consequences.
These real heroes, like Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Pedro Argüelles, Librado Linares, Antúnez, the Lobaina brothers, and the many other brave and courageous members of Cuba’s opposition are the ones who have not betrayed their principles and have remained loyal to the cause of freedom in Cuba. These heroes are nothing like Jaime Ortega who has sold his Church, his dignity, and the Cuban people to the Castro brothers for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver.
Heroes such as Angel Moya who as Uncommon Sense is reporting, has refused to accept his liberation unless other prisoners of conscience who he refers to has his brothers are also released.
Cuba’s prisoners of conscience, especially the 11 still in jail because of their refusal to accept forced exile as a condition of their “freedom,” are well established as men of character and determination.
But prisoner Angel Moyá Acosta took that to a new level on Friday after his wife informed him that the Catholic Church had announced that he and fellow prisoner Guido Sigler Amaya would soon be released — and that Moyá would be allowed to remain in Cuba.
No, said Moyá, I will not leave prison until other members of the Group of 11 who are ill — Pedro Argüelles, Eduardo Díaz, Librado Linares and Sigler — are released first.
“This is something we have respect, because it is something he always has said,” said Moyá’s wife, Bertha Soler, a leader of the Damas De Blanco.
“To me, it is very strange, something that I don’t understand, for if they are going to release two from these 11, why does it have to be Angel Moyá, because he is not sick and there others who are sick,” Soler told the Cuba Democratic Directorate in Miami.
“I want my man in my house, yes, but we’re always praying for the sick. And then nothing. Let’s see what happens in the coming hours,” Soler said.