January 30, 1998
By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The image of Christ has gone, and Cuban guerrilla icon Ernesto "Ché Guevara once again presides unchallenged over Revolution Square in Havana.
The day after Pope John Paul's extraordinary Mass last weekend in the square -- considered the heart of revolutionary Cuba -- an enormous image of Jesus erected for the occasion was hastily brought down.
For one morning, however, in front of the world's media and hundreds of thousands of Cubans there to see the pope, the Christ image had literally and figuratively overshadowed a similarly large outline of Che's face across the square.
But now the Marxist guerrilla leader, who with President Fidel Castro helped mastermind the island's 1959 revolution and then died eight years later trying to foment revolution in Bolivia, is back at center-stage in the square.
"Everything has returned to normal here. Things are as they should be again,'' said a Cuban policeman, nodding to the Che image and a statue opposite which honors another local hero: 19th century writer and independence father Jose Marti.
"It was a great, historic event, the Mass in this square, and the whole visit of the Pope,'' mused mechanics teacher Ernesto Fernandez as he stood watching workmen take down the last scaffolding from the altar used by the Pontiff. "Now Cuba is going to carry on the same, with the only difference being that the Church has more security.''
Such comments echo a widespread feeling among Cubans that the Pope's visit -- billed by many as a potentially explosive clash between one of the world's last Communist stalwarts and religion's leading crusader against communism -- did not and will not bring immediate drastic changes to the island.
"The Pope came, he saw, but he certainly did not conquer Fidel or his system,'' said local sociologist Felipe Alvarado. "I have to tell you, however, that none of us here, neither supporters nor critics of Castro, thought the Pope would bring things crashing down, despite all the hype abroad.''
From the evidence of daily life in Havana, there are few tangible changes from the trip -- except, perhaps, for the proliferation of "Welcome Pope!'' posters and leaflets still fluttering in streets and stuck on cars and windows.
At Cathedral Square in Havana's old quarter, prostitutes were back to work in greater numbers after a police crackdown before and during the visit. One of them, a 22-year-old who identified herself as Maria and stood next to the cathedral looking for work, told how she and others had been arrested during the Pontiff's visit then released again.
"I can understand it, but they have to understand too that we have no other way to live,'' she said, adding that she was given little food but otherwise not mistreated in jail.
On Havana's famous Malecon sea-front, battered by winter winds, conversation has returned to daily trivia. "Not another interview about the Pope -- please! He's gone home. Now we're talking about more important things here, like baseball and girlfriends,'' joked 18-year-old Manuel Barrios.
And on Wednesday's anniversary of the birth of independence hero Jose Marti, the island's Communist youth groups were out marching as usual.
Despite the absence of dramatic changes in Cuba, however, most agree the Pope's visit will inevitably have a more subtle impact and may act as a catalyst in certain areas.
Most obviously, the Roman Catholic Church appears to have secured a more open future in Cuba after being denied for decades the ability to operate freely on the island. "For the Church, it's a case of Cuba before the Pope's visit and Cuba after the Pope's visit,'' said Fernando de la Vega, a spokesman for the Havana Archbishop's office.
Also, in what would be the most tangible consequence of the Pope's visit, the government is widely expected to release some political prisoners after the Vatican delivered a list of more than 200 detainees, some of them prisoners of conscience.
And the mere fact of massive religious events in squares which for nearly 40 years only saw political gatherings, has had a psych. "What Cuba needs is fundamental reforms in structure, and I don't see any evidence that the Pope's visit has brought that process closer,'' said leading dissident Elizardo Sanchez.
Fernandez, the mechanics teacher, said he was pleased there appeared to be no major political changes because he did not want to lose the benefits of Cuban socialism such as free education and health care. "We would lose everything.''
Such sentiments would probably disappoint the Pope, who this week expressed hope his trip to Cuba may bear similar fruits to a 1979 visit to Poland that inspired the opponents of Communism there and in other Eastern European countries. ^REUTERS@
15:14 01-29-98