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By Angus MacSwan
MIAMI, Jan 15
(Reuters) - Nowhere is Pope John Paul's visit to Cuba causing more anguish than
in Miami, where it has raised expectation and trepidation among Cuban Americans
over what it means for their Communist-ruled homeland's future.
The Pontiff's trip starting next Wednesday has also sown division in a
community which clings to the hope of one day returning to a Cuba free of
President Fidel Castro's rule.
Their dilemma lies in the hope that Pope John Paul will be a catalyst for
change and the fear that his presence in Havana will lend legitimacy to Castro's
government.
"There is certainly a lot of apprehension and ambivalence. They don't
know whether to be for or against it,'' Bishop Thomas Wenski of Miami's Roman
Catholic Archdiocese told Reuters.
"Certainly the sight of Castro and the Pope shaking hands will be a
bitter pill to swallow. We are dealing with highly emotional issues. The Cubans
here are a wounded people.''
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans have settled in Florida after fleeing Cuba
since Castro's 1959 revolution. Miami is the center of exile organizations
dedicated to his overthrow.
The charged debate over the Pope's trip reveals strong differences on how a
transition in Cuba might be achieved.
A storm of controversy raged when the Archdiocese began organizing a
pilgrimage from Miami to Havana by cruise ship led by Archbishop John Favalora.
More than 400 Catholic faithful signed up for the trip, which would have
culminated in their attending the Pope's mass on Jan. 25 in Revolution Square.
But last month right-wing exiles, among them prominent businessmen, forced
it to be canceled.
While the church said it wanted to show solidarity with Cuban faithful,
hardliners said such a trip was morally wrong while Castro remained in power. In
the end the Archdiocese arranged for about 180 people to fly to Havana on a
one-day charter flight for the Jan. 25 mass.
"The Cuban American community has two minds,'' said Max Castro of the
University of Miami's North-South Center.
"They hope the Pope's visit will start a groundswell, like in Poland.
But they must swallow the Pope's cordial contacts with Castro, his de facto
acceptance of the state and the possibility it will help legitimize the
government.''
Exiles fear the Pope's words could discredit U.S. policy and increase
support for easing the 35-year-old U.S. embargo on Cuba.
Wenski said that in the eyes of many Cuban Americans, the Catholic Church in
Cuba was a lackey of the government. But Pope John Paul wanted to strengthen the
church and Favalora was anxious to show solidarity with it, he said.
The Pontiff also wanted to build up the church to be a force in an eventual
transition in Cuba and offset the Cuban army, so far the only strong alternative
entity, Wenski said.
Some hardline exiles covet a prominent role themselves and do not welcome
competition even from the church, he said.
Exile groups plan to take advantage of the Pope's visit to focus attention
on what they see as political oppression in Cuba.
The Cuban American National Foundation, the most powerful organization, has
issued a graphic poster featuring a dead refugee child as part of its campaign.
"It is also important that this visit serve to bring the attention of
the world to the inequities and the lack of freedom prevalent in our homeland,
and not the opposite,'' CANF president Francisco Hernandez said. "The Pope
should talk in Cuba in the same way that he spoke in Poland.''
The Democracy Movement plans to take a flotilla of boats and airplanes to
international waters and airspace off Havana on Jan. 24, where exiles will
conduct a prayer service. It said some of its members would try to land in Cuba
without visas to attend Pope John Paul's Mass.
Even singer Gloria Estefan, Cuban Miami's favorite daughter, has had her
say, turning down an approach from the church to sing in Havana for the Pope.
"We will never sing in Cuba while Fidel Castro's regime exists,'' she
said.
A series of small bomb explosions have hit Havana and tourist areas in the
past 12 months, killing one person. The Cuban government has blamed Miami-based
exile groups.
The CANF says it condones but will not itself use violence to overthrow
Castro. Paramilitary groups such as Alpha 66 still conduct military training in
the Florida Everglades but no group has overtly spoken of disrupting the Pope's
trip with violence.
"It will be a blow to the older generation of exiles if there's not an
apocalyptic collapse of the Castro government. But I'm sure the Pope will say
something to give them comfort,'' Max Castro said. REUTERS
00:18 01-16-98 |