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The pope: a man for all reasons in Cuba
Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega Impending visit stirs would-be allies
November 25, 1997
Web posted at: 5:53 p.m. EST (2253 GMT)From Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman
HAVANA (CNN) -- Less than two months before his scheduled arrival in Cuba, Pope John Paul II has become all things to all people here.
The Catholic faithful call him the messenger of truth and hope, while the communist party newspaper Juventud Rebelde calls him a courageous and daring counterforce against U.S. attempts to isolate Havana.
But at an open-air mass Sunday, Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who recently returned from a visit with the pope, took what was widely interpreted as a jab at the country's communist leadership.
"Pontius Pilate was not concerned about Jesus," said Ortega, the archbishop of Havana. "He had no good concerns. His only concern was to maintain order."
CNN's Lucia Newman reports
The pope has repeatedly criticized the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, which endears him to the Cuban government. But the government's opponents also regard the pontiff as an ally.
In the city of Santa Clara, which will be the pope's first stop on his visit, a group of dissidents are in their sixth week of a hunger strike.
Dissidents hope pontiff will take up their cause
They are protesting what they say are trumped-up police charges against a woman who is a human-rights activist. They are also protesting charges against themselves after they were arrested for launching the hunger strike.
"The police arrived at 4:30 in the morning and broke in through the window," says Daula Carpio, one of the dissidents. "Everyone was sleeping on the floor and (the police) dragged them out, accusing them later of not wanting to get up to get into the police car."
Four of the hunger strikers are now in prison. The other four have been sentenced to between a year and 18 months in a farm labor camp, a sentence due to begin this week.
Still, they say they won't give in.
"Until we are all exonerated of crimes we never committed, until justice is done, until then I'm determined to continue this fast," says Lilia Meneses, another dissident.
The hunger strike is unlikely to get them what they want, which is why they say their only hope is the pope.
Related stories:
- Cuban exiles permitted to return for papal visit - November 5, 1997
- Catholic church gets new access to Cuban media - November 1, 1997
- Pope to visit Cuba for first time - October 29, 1996
Related sites:
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
- The Holy See - official site of the Vatican
- Cuba: Government and Politics - links to resources from Latin America on the Net
- The CIA World Factbook page on Cuba - detailed list of facts and figures for Cuba
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
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