MIAMI, United States. – Maridilegnis Caraballo lost a part of herself when her husband was arrested. Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo had peacefully taken to the streets with his eldest son, David, on July 11, 2021 in the city of Palma Soriano. There he was immobilized by the military, transported to one of the local political police barracks, beaten and harassed. Today he is serving a seven-year prison sentence.
Together with Rosales Fajardo, Caraballo pastors a small church that the State refuses to register. Along with him, she also took care of his children, both teenagers, now affected by distance and injustice. Caraballo, like other wives and mothers of political prisoners in Cuba, have come to the public arena to make the cases of her loved ones visible.
The last time she received news from her husband it was harsh: his health was failing again, kidneys again, he drank little water and worked a lot in the sun. Caraballo spoke with the press, he considered every possibility of taking the message abroad.
Meanwhile, life continues its slow flow on the impoverished and dark island where he lives. Meanwhile, she tries to support the columns of the home that socialism cracked.
―What reaction have you seen in the neighborhood, among the neighbors, after the pastor’s imprisonment?
―Not only in our neighborhood, but in the community in general, we have received support from family, friends, and even people we don’t even know who sometimes approach me on the street to show their support. We have experienced the love of the people of this place in many ways.
Something that impresses us is how, on the occasions when my husband has gone away, many people come home to see him. The point of agreement in each comment is the injustice that we have had to experience, and not only us, but thousands of families. People know what happened to my husband. Since July 11, 2021, in the presence of the entire town and without any cause, he received the first and brutal beatings of many that would follow later. Added to all this is the cruelty that comes with being imprisoned in the current context of our nation and without having committed any crime.
He told me a story that touched my heart recently. Ministering the love of God to other inmates in the Boniato maximum security prison, in Santiago de Cuba, he was in detachment number 18, that of repeat offenders. Some were sentenced to more than 40 years in prison, they would never get out of there. Several opened their hearts and began to tell the reason for which they were imprisoned. It was shocking: the most cruel murders, even of family members. When Lorenzo finished telling me he told me: “And me, who did I murder?”
If on the one hand, the judicial system had supposedly given justice to the crimes of those people, on the other, my husband was in the middle of all of them, like another criminal, in one of the most dangerous detachments.
―In the midst of this trial, not everything has been bad, we have grown a lot as people, as a family, we have gotten very close to God, and that is something spectacular for which we are grateful. Seeing and experiencing God’s love in action, seeing his work in each brother during this time has been one of the most beautiful gifts and experiences of my life.
Like Job, today we can say: “I had heard you by hearsay, but now I know you.” Many Christians were prepared by God for this time. Many, not only in our country but also outside our borders, do not stop praying for my husband, for our family. Others have collaborated time and again so that we do not lack anything, others have been open doors so that Lorenzo’s case is known, others have advocated at the highest levels for my husband’s freedom, others do not stop encouraging us through of his letters.
And I can say even more: these almost three years have been possible thanks to the men and women of faith that God has used in every corner of the world. Today I take this opportunity to publicly express our gratitude to each of those lives. We have seen the parallelism referred to in the The Bible when he compares us to the human body: many members, many functions, but being one, they all hurt with our pain.
―What is the status of the independent Mount of Zion congregation, which you pastor with your husband?
―With our trial, the church was also tested. It has also been very difficult as a congregation to get to this day. There is a whole path in which, unfortunately, some are not, but in which we have also seen the owner of the Church, the one who bought it with the price of blood, guard it, sustain it, guide it and build it.
We continue to listen to his voice, obey him, bring the kingdom, and know it to make it known.
―I know that Rosales Fajardo, despite the hard life of the political prison, has not stopped preaching, and that he has even served by encouraging and advising other inmates.
―He always says that the only thing that changed in this process was the platform. Despite everything, he does not lose his joy and sense of humor.
Looking at his life I can’t help but think of the Apostle Paul when he said: “Nothing will separate me from the love of Christ.” The tribulation has not stopped the purpose. Despite the suffering he has continued to show Christ, preaching, advising, helping many and experiencing true freedom, despite the bars. Many of them have even already been baptized.
―His daughter, of secondary school age, has suffered harassment from teachers because of her father’s participation in the 11J demonstrations.
―Yes, my children have suffered a lot from their father’s unjust imprisonment. They have been forced to have an absent father at very difficult ages, such as adolescence and early youth. As if that were not enough, they have had to deal with people or teachers pointing at them and humiliating them at school. In one last incident, a teacher called my daughter a “worm” and a “counterrevolutionary” in the middle of the entire class.
All because she is the daughter of Pastor Lorenzo Rosales, a 11J prisoner, of whom we feel extremely proud.
―Has your son, David, experienced similar circumstances?
―My son David was also arbitrarily detained on July 11 along with his father. He was only 17 years old. He spent a week in jail, and was later placed on bail as a precautionary measure. Finally, his punishment was a fine and police monitoring that lasted months.
Despite everything, he made an effort to finish his twelfth grade and obtained a university degree. Although we do not have to regret an event similar to what happened to my daughter at school, this situation and the imprisonment of her father have affected her. David was forced to abandon his studies because, financially, he could not support the home in the current context.
There have been many tears and frustrations for not having his father, who was always with them, especially with him, in his emotional life, accompanying him in his challenges, his experiences, his fears in this stage of life, while he stopped be a boy and became a man.
Many nights David needed his father, and although God has not failed us and has been that loving father who has sustained him until today, my husband’s imprisonment has affected his spiritual life. I know you have many questions before God.
―What do you think has been the main impact of Rosales Fajardo’s absence for you?
―It has been and is very difficult for me to see my children grow up visiting their father, a man of God, an excellent father, just once a month in a prison.
On the other hand, all this that has happened on an emotional level in our lives has nothing to do with our faith, that is, we have an unbreakable faith in what God has said, and in his word, and we are sure that all this will work for the good. We recognize that today, through the trial we have grown and have gotten closer to God in an extraordinary way. Lives have been reached and brought closer to Christ, we have seen families restored through this suffering and that is glorious.
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2024-06-10 15:28:36
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