Latin America – FoRB in Full

The ouster of Nicolás Maduro will bring both fresh and familiar challenges for religious leaders in Venezuela

Posted on 12/01/202615/01/2026 by cswpress in Latin America, Venezuela

Until 3 January 2026, Nicolás Maduro sat as the head of the Venezuelan government. He derived much, if not all, of his legitimacy because he was handpicked as successor by the late president, Hugo Chávez, with the approval of the then leader of Cuba, Raúl Castro. This superseded the normal chain of succession, under which Diosdado Cabello, as head of the National Assembly, should have assumed the presidency until elections could be held.

At the time, speculation was rampant about possible divisions within Chávez’s inner circle, and the possibility that Cabello might make a power grab of his own. However, Cabello, and other powerful Chávez loyalists, including General Vladimir Padrino, publicly accepted Chávez’s choice, allowing Maduro to ascend to the presidency.

The result was what has been widely, and misleadingly, referred to as ‘the Maduro Regime’, but which, in truth, is a Chavista regime – set up strategically and intentionally with a cast of key players to ensure that the Chavista party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) remains in power indefinitely. Over the past 13 years, members of this cast of players have supported Maduro’s position even as they consolidated power and massive wealth for themselves.

Continue reading →

Despite government promises, ‘Total Peace’ remains elusive in Colombia today

Posted on 11/11/202512/11/2025 by cswpress in Colombia, Latin America

On 4 April Maribel Silva, Isaíd Gómez and Isaíd’s uncle, Carlos Valero obeyed the summonses of an illegal armed group operating in the Calamar Municipality of Colombia’s Guaviare Department. The next day, James Caicedo, Jesús Valero, Maryuri Hernández, Nixon Peñalosa and Oscar García did the same.

After the individuals failed to return home to their families in the hamlet of Agua Bonita in Pueblo Seco their family members reached out to representatives of the illegal armed group who had issued the summonses, but the group denied that any summonses had been issued. Later, the family members were indirectly warned that they should stop looking for their loved ones and ‘consider the case to be closed.’ 

So their families were left waiting, in the horrific uncertainty of what might have happened to them, wondering whether to sit tight, holding onto hope that their family members still might return home, or to flee the region out of fear of reprisals and for the safety and protection of the lives of the children and parents of the disappeared individuals. All eight individuals had already relocated and settled in Guaviare after being displaced from Arauca Department due to violence and severe violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), including the closure of churches and the targeting of Protestant pastors by illegal armed and criminal groups over the past decade. 

Continue reading →

For authorities in Cuba’s prisons, the right to freedom of religion or belief is a tool to manipulate

Posted on 08/10/2025 by cswpress in Cuba, Latin America

It has been understood for decades that conditions in Cuba’s maximum-security prisons are terrible. They have only grown worse over the past few years as the entire country has experienced an economic and infrastructure crisis, with critical shortages of food and medicine across the country alongside the repeat failure of the island’s entire electrical grid, sometimes for days at a time.

Since 1989, the Cuban government has refused access to the International Committee of the Red Cross to monitor or assess prison conditions. Prisoners are held in unhygienic, sometimes overcrowded conditions, in cells infested with mosquitoes and bedbugs. The food served to prisoners is unpalatable, riddled with insects and worms, and low in nutrition. Despite rampant disease, including tuberculosis, dengue, and dysentery outbreaks, throughout the prison facilities, medical attention is inadequate, if provided at all.

During the hot and humid summer months, temperatures inside the cells can rise to dangerous levels. Multiple former political prisoners have told CSW that the only water they had extremely limited access to, both for drinking and personal hygiene, was cloudy or dirty.

Continue reading →

Bridging the gap: The importance of finding common ground between religious groups and secular human rights organisations

Posted on 03/09/2025 by cswpress in Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua

Oppressive governments depend, in part, on two things: unity among those who support them and divisions within the communities that do not. One of the greatest challenges in addressing freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in countries where that right is regularly violated is bridging divisions between different groups within the religious sector, as well as the gap that often exists between the religious sector and secular human rights and other independent civil society organisations.

Religious groups often occupy a unique position within larger independent civil society. They are networked and organised, to different extents, with members who regularly attend and participate in their activities. They often possess a dedicated physical space, where they are able to hold their activities with minimal outside interference. Some religious groups will run outward focused activities, providing social services. In many cases, religious leaders not only hold a significant decree of influence within their respective community – they may also be perceived as moral adjudicators more widely even by people who do not share their religious beliefs.

Oppressive regimes are sensitive to the danger posed to them by a socially engaged religious sector and outspoken religious leaders who are willing to work hand in hand with larger civil society in defending civil and political rights. Division, therefore, is deliberately encouraged and stoked, often by intelligence and security agencies, with the goal of neutralising or coopting organised independent civil society, including the religious sector.

Continue reading →

Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas dared to speak out against injustice in Nicaragua. For that he has been labelled a murderer and a terrorist.

Posted on 04/08/202515/10/2025 by cswpress in Latin America, Nicaragua

On the evening of Thursday 17 July, armed police officers – some in uniform and others dressed in black or blue and with their faces covered – arrived in a coordinated operation at the homes of Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and several of his friends and family in Jinotepe Municipality, Carazo Department, Nicaragua.

The police, who did not show any arrest warrants, broke down the doors of each house using their rifle butts and a tool called a ‘pig’s foot’ before proceeding to arrest Pastor Palacios Vargas, his sister Jéssica Palacios Vargas and brothers-in-law Pedro José López and Armando José Bermudez. Mauricio Alonso Petri, a political activist and friend of the pastor, and his adult son of the same name, who is a part of the worship team at Pastor Palacios Vargas’ church were detained as well. Family friend Olga María Lara Rojas, a former political councillor, who is a Protestant Christian but not a member of Pastor Palacios Vargas’ church, was also arrested at her home.

The officers confiscated the detainees’ cell phones and other electrical devices and were reported to have taken them to the 3^rd Police District, though the authorities initially refused to provide their family members with any information as to their whereabouts.

Continue reading →