SANTIAGO DE CUBA (Reuters) РPope Benedict XVI will arrive on Monday to Cuba for a three day visit in which he will meet President Ra̼l Castro to strengthen ties between the two institutions most influential in the country, despite their visions conflicting on the Socialist model existing on the island for more than five decades.
Tens of thousands of Cubans are enrolled in Santiago de Cuba to a jubilant reception gives the German Pontiff, who in his 84 years embarked on a small tour of the region to revive the Catholic faith against the increasing push of popular Protestant, as evangelists and Pentecostal faiths.
Since the historic meeting between the deceased Pope John Paul II and former President Fidel Castro in 1998, the Catholic Church has become the principal interlocutor of the Government on issues as sensitive as political prisoners and dissidents groups.
Although with fewer magnetic media that their respective predecessors, Raúl Castro and Pope Benedict XVI are seen as more pragmatic leaders and the meeting could cement a key Alliance when Havana reaches out to upgrade the economy without giving up his socialist ideology and the Church tries to get a greater social weight through social and educational programs.
“the visit Benedict will be something transcendental”, said Veronica Sanchez, a Mexican student who was unable to attend events in their country but who may feel in Cuba the stay of the Pope. “Really, John Paul II was a Pope very charismatic and popular, although I do not like comparisons”, he added.
The Holy Father will be received by the President at the airport in Santiago, after serving a tour in which he asked renew the faith despite the dramatic violence of drug trafficking, but he avoided entering controversial cases of paedophilia in the second country with more Catholics in the world in Mexico.
Apertrechados with bottles of water to quell the stifling Caribbean heat and waving small flags of Cuba and the Vatican, some 200,000 people attend afternoon mass that records the pontiff in the second largest town on the island.
. For Tuesday, the Pope will pay tribute to the Virgen de la Caridad in the nearby sanctuary of El Cobre, where rests the mythical image of the Cuban patron 400 birthday of its discovery by fishermen at sea. In the afternoon will fly to Havana to meet formally with Raúl.
It is unclear whether Pope Benedict will also meet with Fidel, of 85 years, or with the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, who is in Cuba undergoing radiation therapy to combat cancer that was diagnosed last year.
Communism NI, NI EMBARGO
The visit of Pope Benedict XVI Crown a sweet moment between the Church and the Government, who lived decades of hostilities after the triumph of the revolution in 1959, although it is preceded from a front statement against communism.
“the Marxist ideology in the form in which it was conceived already does not correspond to reality”, said the week aboard the papal plane on its way to Latin America. “new models must be found patiently and constructively”, added the Pope, stating that the Church can help in this way.
The Government drives hundreds of reforms to give more space for private entrepreneurship and significantly lighten the bulging State payroll, what has generated expectations and fears in the country of 11 million people accustomed to decades of Soviet-style economic centralism.
“the Cubans would like to that the Pope’s visit had implications for ending the blockade, but we do not need a new system,” said Sergio Teyes, a man of 40 years near his Chevrolet Deluxe 1950 in which often lead tourists to walk around the city.
Despite criticisms of communism, the Vatican also openly rejects the embargo United States imposed against Cuba 50 years.
On the other hand, Benedict XVI does not have on its agenda receive dissident leaders, who had called a minute with the Pope to call for greater political freedom and respect for human rights.
Las Damas de Blanco, a group of Catholic women calling for the release of political prisoners, said that the authorities will show to the Holy Father a Cuba “which does not exist” and claim that they have forbidden manifested during the mass the Pontiff.
“I was waiting for several comrades in the Centre of Santiago, but they never arrived.” “Apparently arrested them to thwart the protest that we had planned for the visit of the Pope here,” said Aimeé Garcés, a dissident in Santiago, whose complaint could not be confirmed by other sources.
Some 30 women in this group marched Sunday, as every week for eight years, in a well-known avenida de La Habana in the midst of a great media coverage, since the arrest last week of several of them hit the fears of conflict during the papal visit.
(Edited by Enrique Andrés pretzel and Silene RamÃrez)
