CUBA'S HARDLINE TACTICS: MORE THAN 600 VIOLATIONS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Kuba is reverting to "hardline tactics" due to over 600 violations of religious freedom counted in 2023. Harsh actions against religious freedom continue in Cuba following the July 2021 protests, as a new persecution watchdog report tallied 622 documented violations of religious freedom in 2023 amid a return to "hardline tactics."
The Caribbean island has maintained a similarly high level of incidents, with 657 cases reported in 2022, a significant increase from the 272 cases reported in 2021 by the UK-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide organization.
CSW's March 2024 report titled "Repression and Resistance: Return to Hardline Tactics" highlights repressive laws and systematic human rights violations that have impacted religious leaders and congregations of various faiths, including Afro-Cuban groups, Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants, and Roman Catholics.
The communist government of Cuba, following the protests on July 11, 2021, intensified its repressive actions, targeting religious groups and leaders with increasingly harsh laws. Both registered and unregistered religious associations have become subjects of disruptive surveillance, repeated interrogations, and threats aimed at stifling their religious activities.
"The government continues to specifically target religious leaders and individuals offering spiritual or material support to the families of political prisoners," the report said. "Religious leaders and their congregations trying to respond to increasingly acute humanitarian needs in many parts of the island are harassed, fined, and, in many cases, see the aid they attempt to distribute confiscated."
Among the numerous human rights violations highlighted in the report are religious leaders being threatened and pressured to expel family members of political prisoners from their congregations as part of a "social isolation policy." Political prisoners are denied religious visits or the right to receive religious materials. Children are targeted with verbal abuse in schools "because of their religious beliefs." Unregistered religious group leaders face harassment, threats, and fines.
"I told them that I am a Christian, not a counter-revolutionary church. I am a believer in God and a follower of Christ. I am not part of a counter-revolutionary alliance but a unity-building alliance among supporting pastors to serve, with greater excellence, the island of Cuba," said an unnamed religious leader to CSW researchers.
"I told them they could do whatever they wanted with me, but I would not stop attending church. I would treat Christians of any denomination the same way I treat any citizen, communist or not. I told them that if they wanted to take my rights away for providing... services or going to church, let them."
The government's strategy goes beyond mere repression, using social isolation and short-term arbitrary detention, which has led to a prominent wave of emigration as Cubans flee the island due to threats of imprisonment and coercion against their families.
The July 2021 protests marked a significant moment in the country's recent history, with thousands of Cubans taking to the streets in various cities to express their frustration with the government's handling of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lack of political freedoms.
Triggered by critical shortages of food, medicine, and essential necessities, along with prolonged power outages, the demonstrations were among the largest and most widespread on the island in decades. Protesters chanted slogans such as "Freedom!" and "Down with dictatorship!" facing a strong response from the government, which deployed police and military forces to suppress the unrest.
In Cuba, the government is the primary persecutor of Christians, viewing potential rivals to the Communist Party of Cuba, including Christian beliefs, as a threat, reports Open Doors. Church leaders or believers who criticize human rights violations or political corruption are at risk of interrogation, arrest, smear campaigns, and imprisonment.
Churches must register to operate legally, but the government can reject or ignore these applications, forcing churches to function illegally and risk closure, fines, and property confiscation. Even registered churches face strict surveillance and monitoring, with infiltration by regime sympathizers or state security agents.
According to CSW, Cuba will establish a new government department to oversee religious institutions and fraternal groups in 2022. However, religious leaders told CSW that most "matters continue to be handled by the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC), which consistently maintains antagonistic relations with religious groups."
While churches in Cuba can hold services, government tolerance can abruptly end if a leader or member is deemed anti-government, according to Open Doors. Those leading unregistered churches or openly opposing the regime are highly vulnerable to persecution.
Recommendations for the Cuban government include amending the constitution and legal framework to enhance protection of religious freedom, ratifying international human rights agreements, and ceasing harassment and threats against religious leaders and human rights defenders.
CSW urges international bodies to closely monitor the situation, hold the Cuban government accountable for its actions, and support civil society and religious groups in Cuba facing persecution.
Cuba is listed by the US Department of State as a "country of particular concern" regarding religious freedom. This list also includes some of the worst human rights violators globally, including but not limited to China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, and Burma.
In December, the Secretary-General of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Prof. Jerry Pillay, met with Cuban President Miguel DíAz-Canel and praised religious freedom in Cuba, citing meetings with the Presbyterian Church in Cuba and other churches.
His comments were criticized by supporters of religious freedom, including Teo Babun, President and CEO of Outreach Aid to the Americas.
"It disturbs us that your visit, apparently tightly controlled by the Cuban government, has failed to give you an accurate understanding of the state of fundamental rights to religious freedom or belief in Cuba," Babun wrote in a letter. "Even worse, we see that the Cuban government is using your visit, and particularly your statements celebrating religious freedom in Cuba, to support its absurd claims that Cubans enjoy this fundamental freedom."