Religious Freedom in Cuba

Executive summary

The extremely high profile visit of Pope Benedict XVI in March 2012 along with some concessions on the part of the government to a very limited group of religious organisations, led many to express hope that this heralded a new and more positive era for religious freedom in Cuba. Unfortunately, while the international media coverage focused for the most part on these major events, their cameras missed the reality on the ground for most religious believers in Cuba. Reported violations of religious liberty, many involving dozens of people at a time, tripled in 2012: up to 120 from 40 in 2011. These numbers do not include the hundreds of devout Catholics who were arrested, sometimes violently, and arbitrarily imprisoned during the week of the Pope’s visit in order to prevent them from attending any of the scheduled Masses or other events. Unfortunately, events in the first quarter of 2013 seem to indicate that the trend of a broader political crackdown on religious freedom in Cuba is continuing.
After a period in which it appeared that the government was moving towards more subtle and refined pressure on church leaders, 2012 saw a return of the use of more brutal and public tactics. For the first time in years, CSW received multiple reports of violent beatings of Protestant pastors in different parts of the country. Additionally, week after week, scores of men, women and sometimes children were physically and violently dragged away by state security agents from Sunday morning services. Many were imprisoned only to be released each week after the conclusion of religious services. There were also increased reports of threats of forced closure, confiscation and demolition of church buildings, including historic, registered churches; some of these threats were carried out. The government has in general moved away from issuing lengthy prison sentences to political dissidents, and now employs a strategy of frequent, temporary arbitrary detention without charge. This change in tactic has also been applied to religious leaders who are viewed, for whatever reason, as problematic by the authorities – and many reported being temporarily detained and imprisoned multiple times over the course of the past year.
Church leaders continue to complain in particular about the authority granted to the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA), an arm of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP), over all religious groups and associations. They object, virtually unanimously, to the Communist Party being given direct authority over all religious activities and business, rather than officially bringing these issues under government oversight when such oversight is needed. The consistently antagonistic relationship between the director of the Office of Religious Affairs, Caridad del Rosario Diego Bello, and the leadership of the various denominations gives the impression that the office exists solely to monitor, hinder and restrict the activities of religious groups. Over the past year the office has refused authorisation for a number of religious activities and has, in cooperation with other government agencies, issued fines and threats of confiscation to dozens of churches and religious organisations.
Cuba signed both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in early 2008. Five years later Cuba has yet to make any move to ratify either. According to church leaders representing the full spectrum of denominations in Cuba, the reforms that have taken place have been mostly cosmetic – in reality, privileges granted to a few religious groups with the aim of improving Cuba’s image in the outside world. All of this indicates that rather than moving towards a more open society, the government under the leadership of Raúl Castro still views religious organisations, and in particular their leaders, as potentially dangerous; and as a result continues to exert as much control as possible over their activities.
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