Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, who promoted the presence of the Catholic Church in the communist country and who was a key figure in the reestablishment of relations between the United States and the island, died on Friday at the age of 82 in Havana, following a battle against cancer, according to church officials.
Jaime Lucas Ortega Alamino was born on October 18, 1936, in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas. He entered the seminary in 1956, and in 1964 he was ordained as priest.
His ministry was stalled for eight months in 1966 after he was confined at military labor camp known by the Spanish acronym UMAP where the Fidel Castro government sent religious leaders, homosexuals and others opposed to the regime in the early years of the revolution. The following year, Ortega was named parish priest of his native town.
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