The Miami Herald interviews Andres Carrion, the Cuban dissident who was beaten and arrested after shouting “Down with Communism!” during a papal mass in Santiago de Cuba:
Andrés Carrión describes his anti-Castro shouts during papal visit in Cuba
In an exclusive interview, the man who shouted anti-Castro-slogans recalls the globally broadcast incident that occurred during the pope’s visit.
Andrés Carrión, the man who shouted “Freedom!” “Down with communism!” and other anti-Castro slogans on March 26, shortly before the papal Mass on Antonio Maceo Square in Santiago de Cuba, remembers that moment as if it had been the end of his life. His throat was dry. He panted. He thought about his family.
“I was worried because I thought that, at the moment of truth, my voice would fail and my shouts wouldn’t come out,” Carrión recalled in a telephone interview with El Nuevo Herald. “But they did, and I know that they caused the dictatorship much harm.”
The incident occurred in an area near the platform where TV cameramen and photographers stood. It was broadcast widely, throughout the world. As he was removed violently from the square, Carrión was struck by several government sympathizers. One member of the Cuban Red Cross beat him savagely on the face and struck him on the head with a folded stretcher.
“If I had an opportunity to find the stretcher bearer, I’d try to explain to him that his intransigence only benefits the government,” Carrión said. “The same government that keeps him working hard and selling bleach on the streets.”
Carrión thought that he wouldn’t leave the square alive.
For days, Cuban authorities kept his identity secret, until it was disclosed by Alfonso Chaviano Peláez and José Daniel Ferrer García, members of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU). Chaviano said in a phone interview with El Nuevo Herald that he had recognized Carrión but that he was unable to report it immediately because he lacked a means of communication and his home was under close surveillance.
“Not long ago, I was able to see some videos of the protest and the great pounding they were giving me,” Carrión said. “But in the midst of that situation, your adrenaline and state of mind are altered and you don’t realize it. The only thing I felt was that my soul was separated from my body.”
Carrión said that the idea to stage a protest began when he heard that Pope Benedict XVI would visit Santiago de Cuba. One week after the papal Mass, he toured the square repeatedly. He even selected the best location for his protest.
That day, Carrión was among the first to arrive. He took 10 candies and a bottle of cold water. The wait was long and exhausting. He arrived at 11 a.m. The Mass was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. One hour before evading the police cordon and shouting his slogans, a Colombian journalist approached him and asked him what he thought about the Cuban government.
Carrión did not reply.
“I looked at him and said to myself, ‘stick around and you’ll find out what Cubans think,'” he recalled.
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