Marxist leaders from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Colombia offered statements that honored the legacy of the late Pope Francis on Monday, hugging him as a friend of his cause.
The most vocal praise came from Cuba, where dictator Raúl Castro, who joked, would return to the Catholic Church if Pope Francis “kept him like this,” a “dear friend” called him and attributed the creation of lead. The president of the Figure Figure, Miguel Díaz-Canel, praised in a similar way to Pope Francis as “unforgettable” and attributed to him to make Cuba a priority in his service as head of the Church.
The Vatican announced the death of Pope Francis on Monday at the age of 88, shortly after making a surprise appearance during the duration of Easter services on Sunday. The Pontiff had suffered a serious respiratory disease that had hospitalized him during much of February and March and was in the process of recovery at home when he died.
Pope Francis served as head of the novel Catholic Church since 2013 and was the first Latin American Pope, as well as the first to be a member of the Jesuit order. His death caused messages of mourning and celebration of his work in the Church from heads of state worldwide, including non -Christian leaders such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ukrainian President Tayyimyr Zelensky.
In Latin America, the leaders of the most repressive states in the region remembered Pope Francis as a “people’s pope” who sought to reconcile their brutal regimes with the free world.
“Rest in peace, dear friend,” wrote the mass murderer Raúl Castro in a statement published by GranmaThe official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party.
People Walk conforms to a portrait of the late Pope Francis in the Church Charity of Cobre in Havana on April 21, 2025. (Yamil Lage/AFP through Getty Images)
“You were a man of integrity and consistency, which corresponded to affection and good fortune the human relationship we forge,” Castro continued. “I keep long -distance memories of the meetings that I hero and appreciate their affection for the Cuban people and the personal contribution to establish a fraternal dialogue and understanding in the relations between Cuba and the Holy See.”
The communist coup d’etat that seized power in Cuba in 1959 was largely related in the eradication of Catholic influence in the country through the use of farewell squadrons to kill priests and mass exile and abuse of nuns and cataracts. Stories of agents of the Cuban regime who publicly defeat priests and drag them to nations in prison notoriously violent for expressing compassion for peaceful anti -communist dissidents remain common.
Violence against the local Catholic Church did not prevent Pope Francis from using Vatican as a mediator to encourage the United States to allow greater communist violence against the Cuban people by eliminating sanctions and enriching the regime. President Barack Obama, who headed the efforts to enrich the regime during his term, accredited Pope Francis for encouraging him to hug the Cuban Communist Party in 2014.
“His holiness, Pope Francis, issued me a personal call and the president of Cuba, Raul Castro,” Obama said at that time, referring to an agreement to trade the freedom of American Alan Gross for that of the remaining members of the members of the ring ring ring ring ring for ring ring ring ring for ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring for Ring Ring ring of “a ring ring of” four Americans.
Granma He described the mandate of Pope Francis as “one of the greatest movements to approach the Catholic Church and the Nation, based on a relationship of respect and mutual sensitivity,” noting that Pope Francis visited the island nation in 2015.
“Duration your stay in the biggest antilles is a hero a meeting with Fidel [Castro] Who, Althegh was a private visit, marked an import moment for the papal visit to Cuba due to its high symbolic content, “” “” Granma Remembered.
This visit presented a huge repression by the Cuban regime to ensure that prodemocratic dissidents did not allow the Pope at any time. One of those activists, identified as Zqueo Báez, managed to approach the caravan of the Pope who performed one of the events of the visit. Báez shouted the word “freedom” near the Pope, which resulted in the regime agents hit him brutally in front of the Pope and took him to prison. The incident was Caht in video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzswuwqizf8
“I have no news that any arrest occurs. I have no news,” said the Pope on Cuba’s flight when asked about the judgments and the duration of police brutity during his visit. Pope Francis did not meet with any duration of dissidents in favor of democracy, the visit and refused to the deplorable Human Rights Registry of Cuba, tells the reporters, “there are some countries and also to the European countries where their canon, and forest, and forestry, for a sign of religion, for you and forestry, and forestry, for your canon, and it can be a sign of religion, for the same religion.
Díaz-Canel, as Castro, issued a statement that describes “deep regret” in the death of Pope Francis.
“The screens of affection and proximity that transmitted to our compatriots were always reciprocal by the Cubans,” wrote Castro’s subvent. “We remember his visits to Cuba with affection, as well as his words of affection he dedicated to our country in his messages.”
Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, a nearby ally of the Cuban regime, similar to Pope Francis on Monday his weekly television program With Maduro+.
“Today this life has gone and left us an immense legacy, even for being known and above all, to be carried out through the Catholic people of the world,” Maduro said. “It is up to everyone to assume the work of raising Pope Francis, who walked with the humble and defended migrants persecuted and the poor of this planet.”
“His papacy was an ethical guide that inspired us to walk with the most vulnerable and the struggle for social justice,” Maduro added. “We had a Pope of the people, a truly representative Pope of the legacy of Christ the Redeemer.”
Maduro also recalled that Pope Francis presided over the canonization of Venezuela’s first Pope, José Gregorio Hernández.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pkxx-kdmew
The Pope gave several audiences to Maduro in the Vatican and tried, without success, mediate between the violent socialist regime of Maduro and the fractured Venezuelan opposition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxoxfoa86W
In Nicaragua, a nation whose communist regime has declared the war against Catholicism, dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo issued a statement recognizing “differences” with the Church but honoring Pope Francis.
“Our relationships, as believers, devotees and faithful Nicaraguan believers of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, were difficult, fraud, unfortunately influenced by the advertising circumstances,” the dictatorial couple wrote. “We admire your [Pope Francis’s] He travels through the peace of world promotion and intends to build a church committed to the duty and responsibility of creating Concord, through indispensable solidarity and Christian brotherhood. “
In Colombia, President Gustavo Petro, a radical Marxist who, his political career as a member of a terrorist organization, lamented the death of Pope Francis as that of a personal friend.
“A great friend has left me. I feel something alone,” Petro wrote in one of his signature messages on Twitter.
“Hello, he perfectly understood his role as a spiritual leader in the great struggle for life,” Petro continued. “On the greedy causes of extinction. Their encyclicals will go down in history if we are able to build a humanity that defends its greatest good: life.”
Vatican City will organize a funeral for Pope Francis on Saturday to honor his memory.
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