Cuba – FoRB in Full

The growing cost of standing up for human rights in Nicaragua and Cuba

Posted on 18/03/202418/03/2024 by cswpress in Cuba, Latin America, Nicaragua

Olesia Auxiliadora Muñoz Pavon is a choir director for the Santa Ana Parish in Niquinohomo in Nicaragua’s Masaya Department. Age 52, she has been imprisoned on false charges since 6 April 2023, having previously served a sentence from August 2018 until June 2019 – also on false charges.

Since the middle of January this year, like several others in the Women’s Holistic Penitentiary System commonly known as La Esperanza, Ms Muñoz Pavon has been denied any time outdoors where before she was allowed out once a week.

Her crime? Praying out loud.

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A life of struggle and survival: the reality of religious oppression in Cuba

Posted on 01/02/2024 by cswpress in Cuba, Latin America

Father Alberto Reyes Pías is a Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Camagüey, Cuba. He is one of the most articulate voices on freedom of religion or belief in Cuba and continues to courageously speak out about the Cuban government’s systematic violations of this right. This is a transcript of a presentation he gave as part of a panel discussion moderated by CSW, at the 2024 International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC.

In Cuba, one of the most subtle mechanisms of evil is what we call “normalisation” which is nothing more than evil becoming a habitual part of our life. We not only take its presence for granted, but also focus our energies not on eliminating it and freeing ourselves from it, but on figuring out how to continue walking, despite it hindering our steps, tying our hands, and oppressing our throat.

In appearance, religious freedom is respected in Cuba. In general, churches are open, worship is allowed, catechesis exists, young people gather, one can openly talk about God, possess a Bible, and wear religious symbols. Yet, in Cuba, there is a thirst for God. Pastoral agents focus on serving those seeking an experience with God that touches their lives, even at the cost of accepting as “normal” what is not.

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Iván Daniel Calás Navarro teaching a class on freedom of religion or belief in Cuba.

Cuba’s political police threaten young evangelical Christian because of his leadership

Posted on 19/09/202319/09/2023 by cswpress in Cuba, Latin America

By Yoe Suárez

7 September, the day on which 19-year-old YouTuber Iván Daniel Calás Navarro was to celebrate his 20th birthday was going to be an unforgettable day, and it was, but in a very different way. That day, he received a summons, delivered to his house in Havana, for 8 September 2023, to present himself at a police station known for imprisoning and punishing political dissidents.

Although this was the first time he had received an official summons, Calás Navarro is certain that he became a target of the political police beginning in 2017, when, at the age of 14, he decided to share his faith and created the ‘Voz De Verdad’ [Voice Of Truth]’ YouTube channel – which now has 7000 followers – and when a few years later he began to work as a youth leader in his congregation, the Nazareth Baptist Church, which is part of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, a registered denomination with a historic presence on the island.

Surveillance of Calás Navarro became even more intense after the peaceful protests of 11 July 2021 when, in less than a month, the Cuban regime announced Legal Decree 35, which regulates social media. According to FRANCE 24, the law prompted concern in Cuba because of its implication for freedom of expression. The law punishes any content that is critical of the government, or which the authorities deem to be ‘fake news’, or which incites protests. The government maintains that the law is meant to fight cyber-terrorism, however members of Cuban independent civil society believe that the law is nothing more than the formalisation of the censorship that has spread across the island since internet use has grown more widespread.

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Into Exile: Yordanys Díaz Arteaga

Posted on 14/07/202314/07/2023 by cswpress in Cuba, Into Exile, Latin America

It is believed that more than 300,000 people have fled Cuba since nationwide protests swept the country on 11 July 2021. Many of them are religious leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and others who were given no choice but to leave the island under intense pressure from the Cuban government. CSW’s Into Exile series tells some of their stories.

Reverend Yordanys Díaz Arteaga was the pastor of Emmanuel Church, from the Reformed Christian Church of Cuba, a historic denomination with legal registration and a presence in the country since 1943. The denomination was also a member of the Cuban Council of Churches (CIC). Like most other leaders of registered religious groups in Cuba, and especially those in the CIC, Díaz and his denomination enjoyed a degree of religious freedom, provided they line cooperated with and supported the Cuban government.

The pastor and his family began to experience harassment when the reverend began to question the motivations of his denomination for belonging to the CIC. In mid-2019 he was elected president of the denomination, much to his surprise. With the support of pastors in the denomination, he began to make various internal reforms. These were not to the liking Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (ORA) and soon thereafter, he received several warnings.

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Into Exile: Alaín Toledano Valiente

Posted on 13/07/2023 by cswpress in Cuba, Into Exile, Latin America

Pastor Alaín Toledano Valiente and his wife, Marilín Alayo Correa, led Emanuel Church, one of the largest churches in terms of attendees in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba for 20 years. As part of the charismatic Protestant Christian network known as the Apostolic Movement, which the government refuses to register, Pastor Toledano, his family and his church were subjected to two decades of intense harassment at the hands of the authorities.

Their church building was demolished on two separate occasions by the government, and Pastor Toledano and his wife were regularly subjected summonses, interrogations and short term arbitrary detention. Meanwhile, their daughters have been the targets of bullying and violence at school, orchestrated by school officials with the backing of Cuban State Security. In August 2019 he was threatened with imprisonment if his church went ahead with a planned event for women. In October 2021, officials informed him that a criminal case had been prepared against him, meaning he could be arrested and imprisoned at any time.

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