On July 20, 2015, the same officers who withdrew the American flag from their Habanera embassy were summoned by then-President Obama to restore it to its place. Several decades had passed since the diplomatic breakup between Havana and Washington, but these old men were able to witness as privileged witnesses the at least symbolic thaw of tension between the two countries.
The millions of Cubans on one side and the other contemplating the official act, broadcast live on television, wanted to think that it was a historic moment. We did not know, until the recent reading of Cardinal Jaime Ortega’s text, that this was the public fruit of many private negotiations, or as indicated by the countercover note (in the tone of a police novel), of a “discretion to outrage, secret conversations, search for access to key personalities, hidden encounters, tenacious expiration of obstacles”.
Meeting, dialogue and agreement. Pope Francis, Cuba and the United States1 is the faithful story to come from one of its key players of the agreements that led to the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. This book begins to reach its natural reader, Cuban, and motivates numerous reflections at an international juncture no less tense.
Precisely now, when dialogue with the North’s neighbor has once again been difficult – Donald Trump is anything but a generous interlocutor – Cardinal Ortega’s chronicle becomes a particularly necessary exercise in remembration. Three protagonists (Pope Francis and former Presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama) and a group of facilitators, including the cardinal himself, turn what could have been a delicate chess between nations into a fruitful example of dialogical exchange.
After a detailed analysis of the characters involved, the cardinal concludes that the Pope’s charisma and his approach to the two presidents were crucial to the success of the negotiations. Both Castro and Obama are great admirers of the pontiff, and recognize him as an ethical authority and as an effective mediator in conflicts, not only for his ecclesial dignity but – above all – for his personal charism.
All seven parts of the book review the recent history of both countries, from previous and failed attempts to negotiate (the “balsas” crisis, Clinton’s proposals, the Torricelli and Helms-Burton laws, the latter revived today) to the key events of this century, on which the cardinal stops with particular attention.
In what is the essential core of Meeting, Dialogue and Agreement…, Ortega examines a historical line that explains the development of the facts: pope John Paul II’s exhortation to the Cuban faithful in 1998 (“May Cuba open up to the world and may the world be opened to Cuba”); Pope Benedict XVI’s valuable recommendation (“The Church is not in the world to change governments, but to penetrate with the gospel the hearts of men”); the release of 135 political prisoners through the intercession of the so-called Ladies of White, and their exile in Spain; the exchange of prisoners in both states (on the one hand, Cuban agents imprisoned in North America and on the other hand citizen Alan Gross and a prisoner of Cuban origin and hidden identity, “whose sacrifice”, according to Obama, “has been aware of only a few”); and finally, Pope Francis’ interest in reconciling two nations separated by more than fifty years of political conflict.
But in addition to a master lesson in the value of dialogue at the highest level, the book is a small document of Cuba’s history. Cardinal Ortega’s chronicle is always a reading that comes at a good time: although it relates facts that occurred more than five years ago, the “thaw” is in full effervescence.
Perhaps the world stage in these times, especially on this side of the planet, is not the most conducive to dialogue. Trump ‘and other ‘recoil factors’) may have to be waited for the desires that led to the restoration of relations to finally be effective. But the need for continuous, close and serene dialogue between international actors is becoming increasingly urgent, and the Intercessor presence of the Church, just as necessary.
Cardinal Jaime Ortega, one of the fundamental personalities to understand the future of Cuba in recent years, transforms his book, with the subtle style that characterizes it, into a personal manifesto: Meeting, dialogue and agreement… it is also the biographical witness of a man immersed in the historical vortex of the Island and its Church, who has proven himself to be an example of dialogue and discretion.
Note
1 Card. Jaime Ortega Alamino: Meeting, dialogue and agreement. El Papa Francisco, Cuba and The United States, Mexico, Ediciones Paulinas, S.A. de C.V., 1st. edition, 2017.
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