The Abuse of My Rights and The Repression Reaffirmed My Opinions

The Abuse of My Rights and The Repression Reaffirmed My Opinions /
Cubanet, Miriam Leiva
Posted on September 25, 2015

Cubanet, Miriam Leiva, Havana, 24 September, 2015 – I received the
pleasant surprise of a brief visit to my little apartment by Msgr.
Veceslav Tumir, secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Havana, around
11:30am on 19 September. It gave me great joy to receive the invitation
to go to the Nunciature at 4:00 pm that day to greet the admired Pope
Francis, who would be arriving there at approximately 5:30 pm. Up until
that moment, I had planned to attend the welcome event at 31st Avenue
(five blocks from my home) with the community of St. Agustín church, or
the one at St. Rita church, and to attend the Mass at José Martí Plaza,
as I did when Pope John Paul II (at which time I also went to the mass
in Santa Clara), and Pope Benedict XVI came to Cuba.

When at 3:10 pm I was walking along the sidewalk about 20 yards from my
home en route to the Nunciature, a State Security official, accompanied
by a young woman from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), told me
that I was detained, took my cellular phone and my little camera, and
took me in a patrol car to the PNR precinct on Zanja Street.

Shortly thereafter, a Lieutenant Colonel (who called himself Vladimir)
arrived and said, "You are detained because…."

"…it is absurd that I cannot attend the welcome for the Pope," I added,
serenely.

I said that I had been invited to welcome Pope Francis at the entrance
to the Nunciature. Between the departures of the two officers, obviously
to report, my treatment was professionally respectful.

Soon after the Holy Father arrived at the Nunciature, they took me to
the entrance of my little apartment in the same PNR patrol car. The
whole proceeding took four hours total. The State Security official
remained on the sidewalk facing the building where I reside (I don't
know for how long because I don't have a window that faces the street).

On 20 September, around 7:24 am, I received a telephone call from a lady
telling me, in the name of the Secretary of the Nunciature, that I
should be at the entrance to Havana Cathedral at 4:00 pm, to greet the
Pope upon his arrival there. At approximately 3:30 pm, I boarded a
taxi-almendrón (a typical automobile made in America between 1925 and
1959), at the corner of my residence.

As I was traveling along San Lázaro Street, passing by Ameijeras
Hospital, suddenly two cars brusquely intercepted the almendrón. The
driver and passengers started babbling with astonishment as they spied a
license on the windshield with an "SE" in red. "What's going on?" they
asked, alarmed.

I murmured, "Take it easy, this is my problem." I exited the car. The
same official from the day before yelled, "You are detained!" A
plain-clothed woman rushed forward, I told her to let go of my arms, I
turned to pay the taxi, and then surrendered my cell phone and camera.
They sat me in a vehicle between a man and the woman, with two other
officials on the front seat. They took me to the PNR station at 62nd &
7th in Miramar, and held me there until the end of the meeting with the
young men at San Carlos Seminary.

At the door of the station the female official warned me: "You cannot
exit your house nor participate in any activity of the Pope's." When I
calmly argued against this measure, she replied that I did not possess
any credentials, and did not have a written invitation to attend. I
asked if the entire population of Cuba had them. The behavior of these
four officials was also respectful. This "operation against a dangerous
female subject" lasted two hours until my return to my "mansion."

They used a lieutenant colonel and a State Security official on 19
September, and four officials on 20 September, to detain and guard a
calm lady, accompanied and protected by God on the way to Him, whose
lethal weapons were a straw hat, a little purse, a cellular phone and a
little, almost-useless, camera. I am strengthened by the pain of being
denied the honor of greeting Pope Francis and receiving his blessing.
The abuse of my rights and the repression to which I was subjected
reaffirmed my opinions and my perseverance over the last 23 years to
work towards a democratic Cuba. More than 150 Cuban women and men
throughout the country have been harassed and detained during the visit
by Pope Francis.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Source: The Abuse of My Rights and The Repression Reaffirmed My Opinions
/ Cubanet, Miriam Leiva | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-abuse-of-my-rights-miriam-leiva/