The #OZT: I Accuse the Cuban government campaign, in the occasion of the visit to Cuba of Vatican representative Monsignor Dominique Mamberti, urges the Catholic Church to stand, without delay, on the side of the Cuban people, not on the side of its oppressors.

The marginalization of the opposition movements and civil independent organizations that the Castro dictatorship imposes cannot be shared by any prestigious institution. To share in that marginalization as it has happened in Cuba in the past few days, means turning the back on those who need it most.

This is not about politicizing the work of the Church. The relationship between the Holy Seed and independent countries cannot be developed ignoring the relationship between the countries and their respective societies. In the hands of the current regime, the Cuban government is a machine that represses all its citizens, not only its political prisoners. Improving relationships with the Cuban government is not a politically neutral gesture.

We remind the Church, as an institution of the civil Cuban society and as a sovereign country, that any serious negotiation in Cuba about political prisoners must include in its agenda the respect of human rights. The absence of these rights has been the main cause of these incarcerations. Cubans are not looking for a relaxation of the tyranny, but for their inalienable rights, as well as the control of their individual and collective destiny, denied by the Castro dictatorship for more than half a century.