They denounce religious “repression” in Cuba

The NGO Prisoners Defenders presented this Tuesday a report denouncing the religious “repression” in Cuba.

After conducting an analysis of the new Cuban Constitution, which came into force in 2019, the Madrid-based NGO maintains that it “has meant a slight step backwards” in terms of religious affairs.

In the report “Constitutional reform and religious freedom in Cuba”, after investigating parameters such as freedom of expression and the right to non-discrimination, the organization determined that “the Communist Party has assumed full capacity to restrict the freedom and religious cults of arbitrarily without legal capacity to oppose.

The document also describes the Office of Attention to Religious Affairs (OAARR) and the body on which it depends, the Central Committee of the Communist Party, as “dark entities that work under the absence of legislation that regulates religious activities in Cuba.” .

Study of Catholic, Protestant, Yoruba and Muslim religion

The study presents a survey of 56 lay and religious leaders residing in nine provinces and belonging to the Catholic, Protestant, Yoruba and Muslim faiths.

The conclusions of the survey maintain that 93% of those interviewed have suffered repressive acts, 14% of them weekly and 23% monthly.

On the other hand, 84% of those surveyed say they have suffered “threats for thought/conscience/religious reasons”, while 93% express “personal knowledge of cases of pastors/priests/babalawos/imams who have suffered repression, searches, surveillance, and/or have had to emigrate due to repression.”

The report says that the one who “suffers the least repression” is the Catholic Church, because of “the international organization and defense that said church has.”

“The price to be paid by the regime, if the Catholic Church suffered the repression suffered by other confessions, would be too high.”

The study describes the Youruba religion as a “very repressed” faith that is “consensual” but “has never been officially permitted and/or legitimized.”

“The Ifá priest, or Babalawo, will have to practice his religion behind the back of the law, in illegal and perfect conditions so that he can be blackmailed at all times, but especially in the face of any manifestation that displeases the regime.”

Finally, Prisoners Defenders affirms that “the repression suffered by the Muslim religion is not as widespread as others, but it is present in Cuba”, and affirms that the Islamic League “operates as a State Security organization that monopolizes all events and attention on Islam in Cuba, hiding the real repression to which Muslims and their independent organizations are subjected”

Last March, the island’s Council of Ministers gave the green light to the creation of the Department of Attention to Religious Institutions and Fraternal Associations, an institution created “with the mission of conducting and executing the administrative tasks related to these entities” According to the Communist Party it’s a statement.

Likewise, the Communist Party maintains that the island’s Constitution “recognizes, respects and guarantees religious freedom, as well as that religious institutions and fraternal associations are separate from the State and all have the same rights and duties.”

Finally, the Communist Party affirms that the Office of Attention to Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba “will continue to maintain its work in the implementation of the Revolution’s policy towards religion and believers.”

The Cuban government has not reacted to the report of Prisoners Defenders.

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