Christian Solidarity Worldwide: Young Cuban religious freedom defender blocked from leaving Cuba

Cuban religious freedom activist Félix Yuniel Llerena has been banned from travel after he returned from his first trip outside of Cuba.

 

Félix Yuniel Llerena banned from travel

Religious Freedom Defender Blocked From Leaving

19 Jun 2017

By Christian Solidarity Worldwide

A religious freedom defender has been blocked from leaving Cuba to attend a conference on human rights and democracy. Fếlix Llerena López was preparing to board his flight on Saturday 17 June, when state security agents approached him and took him into an office where they informed him that he was barred from leaving the country. 

While Llerena López was not given a reason for the travel ban, he was told that it had been put in place after he returned from a visit to the United States (US) in May, his first trip outside of the country. Llerena López works with the Patmos Institute, an independent civil society organisation which promotes freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all and inter-religious dialogue. While he was in the US, he raised concerns about FoRB violations in meetings with US government officials and members of Congress arranged by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Llerena Lopez was expelled from university shortly after his return.

In addition, last week, a prominent leader in the Apostolic Movement, Pastor Alain Toledano, was visited by state security agents and Communist Party officials at his home in Santiago de Cuba, who showed him an ‘acta de advertencia’, or a pre-arrest warrant, which he is concerned may also be used to block him from traveling abroad.

 In a statement to CSW, Pastor Toledano said, “…the strategy that the police are using here is that they come one by one to the house, they don’t send a citation, nothing written down, and they don’t give you a copy of the ‘actas de advertencia’ against you, even if you ask for one, since they know it can be used against them. They are perfecting their methods so as not to leave any traces of their persecution and acts of evil against the churches and ministries, even as we suffer here in the country.”

While the government requirement for an exit visa was dropped in 2013, there has been an increase in the number of Cuban activists involved with independent civil society organisations and the defence of human rights or democracy being blocked from leaving the country. In one example, that of Karina Gálvez, who works with Convivencia, an independent civil society organisation in Pinar del Rio. The government has brought trumped up charges against her which prevent her from leaving the country. In other cases, like that of Llerena López and also Berta Soler, a leader of the Ladies in White Movement who was prevented from leaving the country last month, officials have simply blocked them from boarding flights out of the country with no official justification given. 

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: “We are deeply concerned by what has happened to Felix Llerena López and Pastor Toledano over the past week, and condemn what appears to be a wider strategy of arbitrarily blocking certain human rights and democracy activists, including religious leaders and FoRB defenders, from leaving the country. We call on the European Union, the United States and other members of the international community to raise this with the Cuban authorities and to push for the right of freedom of movement to be respected for all, especially those who are involved in peaceful religious activities and the promotion of universally recognised human rights.”

Related article:

• Cuba Cuban activist expelled from university 10 May 2017  

The Voice of the Martyrs calls for prayer for Christians in Cuba in midst of crackdown

Over twitter today The Voice of the Martyrs made public the following image:

These are difficult times for Christians around the world. The oldest communities of Christians in the world are being driven to extinction in the Middle East. Meanwhile in Cuba where the persecution and harassment of Christians had continued for decades things have gotten worse. Christian lay persons Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero were killed under suspicious circumstances on July 22, 2012.

In 2014, Raul Castro announced a reform that beginning in 2015 led to the seizure of Church properties. Maranatha First Baptist Church, a historic Church property was taken in May of 2015 under this new "law."

On August 16, 2016 Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that the pace of church demolitions in Cuba was increasing. According to CSW in their latest report on freedom of belief or religion there were 1,606 separate violations between January and July 2016.  This worsening situation compound the explosive growth of repression last year. In 2015 there was a tenfold increase in religious repression compared to 2014 with 2,300 separate violations recorded in 2015 compared to 220 in 2014.

Pastors have been harassed and beaten up by Castro regime agents. Christians are being dragged away from their homes and Churches. Scores of Churches are being destroyed.

These are some of the reasons why The Voice of the Martyrs says: Pray for Christians in Cuba as a crackdown against religion continues.

Religious repression worsens in Cuba

More churches are being destroyed in Cuba and pastors harassed and beaten in 2016

 
 On August 16, 2016 Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that the pace of church demolitions in Cuba was increasing. According to CSW in their latest report on freedom of belief or religion there were 1,606 separate violations between January and July 2016.  This worsening situation compound the explosive growth of repression last year. In 2015 there was a tenfold increase in religious repression compared to 2014 with 2,300 separate violations recorded in 2015 compared to 220 in 2014.

Rev Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso arrested and taken away March 20, 2016

 Carey Lodge, a journalist for Christian Today reported on March 21, 2016 that a day earlier:

"Rev Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso's home and church were surrounded by police and state security agents early in the morning on March 20, he told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) ahead of his arrest.  The pastor was then arrested and taken away by officials, while his wife, Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez, was placed under house arrest. She and the couple's two young daughters have been locked inside their home, in Taguayabon, Villa Clara Province, and their phone connection has been cut.

Before being cut off, Marcheco Suarez was able to speak to CSW over the phone. Though the family and church have not been allowed to speak to Barroso directly, she said she'd been told that her husband had been taken to the city of Santa Clara, and was being refused food or drink.

She added that the pastor had already been ill over the weekend, after a stranger pricked him with a pin while he was on public transport last week."

 The March 20th arrest just hours before the start of President Obama's official visit to Cuba speaks volumes of the nature of the so-called normalized relations between the Obama administration and the Castro regime as does the exponential increase in religious repression since the December 17, 2014 announcement that relations would be normalized.

Rev Mario Felix with wife Yoaxis and two kids

Three days before President Obama arrived in Cuba, a Chilean former Minister of Culture and former Ambassador to Mexico Roberto Ampuero tweeted in Spanish the following: "Paradox: After decades backing Right wing dictatorships in Latin America, now the United States could end up backing a Left wing dictatorship." 

Below is video of the March 20, 2016 arrest of the Cuban pastor.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide: Unprecedented crackdown on religious freedom in Cuba

"If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti-religious laws." - Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

 Unprecedented crackdown on religious freedom  

18 Jan 2016

An unprecedented crackdown on churches across the denominational spectrum in Cuba in 2015 has fuelled a spike in reported violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), according to a new report by CSW.

Figures compiled by CSW, which are not exhaustive but which serve as an indicator of the level of FoRB violations, reveal a tenfold increase - with 2,300 separate violations recorded in 2015 compared to 220 in 2014. Many incidents involve involved entire churches or, in the case of arrests, dozens of victims. A digital illustration by CSW highlights the crackdown on churches in Cuba.

The spike in cases was largely due to the government declaring 2,000 Assemblies of God (AoG) churches illegal, ordering the closure or demolition of 100 AoG churches in three provinces, and expropriating the properties of a number of other denominations, including the Methodist and Baptist Conventions. Legally registered and unregistered religious groups across the denominational spectrum reported varying degrees of hostility from the government.

According to the report, “the consistently antagonistic relationship” between Caridad del Rosario Diego Bello, director of the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA), an arm of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party which oversees religious affairs on the island, and the leadership of many religious groups, “is evidence that the office exists solely to monitor, hinder and restrict the activities of religious groups.”

In 2015, the ORA continued to deny authorisation for a number of religious activities and in cooperation with other government agencies, issued fines and threats of confiscation to dozens of churches and religious organizations. The ORA also sanctioned the arbitrary expropriation of historic, registered church properties and the actions against the AoG churches.

CSW’s report also highlights “more brutal and public tactics” being employed by government agents than were witnessed in the first decade of the millennium:

“Week after week, state security agents physically and violently dragged scores of women away from Sunday morning services. Most were arbitrarily detained until after the conclusion of religious services. The government continued to employ a strategy of frequent, temporary arbitrary detention to target those it views as political dissidents. This tactic is also applied to religious leaders who are viewed as problematic, for whatever reason, by the authorities…for the first time in four years a church leader was sentenced to and served six months in prison for holding unauthorised religious services.”

In the face of intense pressure, many Christians are engaging in peaceful protest, as seen in the case of the attempted demolition of an AoG church in Santiago de Cuba in November 2015 which was thwarted after local Christians held a peaceful sit-in at the church building. On 8 January 2016, a large-scale government operation led to the mass arrests of several church leaders and the blocking of their communications devices while two churches were demolished, possibly to pre-empt a similar protest. Both churches belonged to the Apostolic Movement, an unregistered network of Protestant churches.

CSW’s analysis suggests that the Cuban government is trying to eliminate the potential for social upheaval by cracking down on any and all groups that are calling, or could call, for social and political reforms alongside the limited economic reforms the government has enacted.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, “CSW doesn’t use the word ‘unprecedented’ lightly to refer to violations of freedom of religion or belief in Cuba in 2015. Following an upward trend in violations in recent years, 2015 witnessed a spike as the authorities deployed ever more public and brutal tactics to target churches across the denominational spectrum, regardless of their legal status. It is clear that despite promises of reform, the government is determined to maintain a tight grip on civil society, including churches. We commend the courage of religious groups who have spoken out publicly to denounce these violations and to call for the right to freedom of religion or belief to be upheld. We urge the international community to stand with them and to hold Cuba to account for these human rights violations.”

Taken from: http://www.csw.org.uk/2016/01/18/news/2952/article.htm

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports on reforms in Cuba that undermine property rights

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has released a report documenting a worsening situation with regards to religious freedom in Cuba that has been picked up in the media. However,  reading through their report one finds that what many Cuba experts have been heralding as one of Raul Castro's reforms has a sinister underbelly that further undermines the already weak area of property rights. Even graves are not protected. The Miami Herald reported on June 9, 2015 that Cuban-American investor José Valdés-Fauli found when he visited the tomb of his maternal grandfather, Jacinto Pedroso, a Cuban businessmen and founder of the Pedroso Bank who had died in 1955 that his mausoleum had been sold, his remains thrown into a mass grave some time after 2013. Below is the excerpt of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide discussing this new legislation that negatively impacts property rights. The added bold for emphasis is mine.

New legislation, Legal Decree 322: the General Law on Housing, was announced on 5 September 2014 and came into force on 5 January 2015.1 The law is meant to regulate private properties, mostly homes, and enforce zoning laws. However, it has reportedly been used by government officials to claim the right to seize church properties and to force the churches into the role of paying tenant. Cuban lawyers have told CSW that although the law does not specifically mention religious groups, government officials have claimed it gives them the authority to expropriate property when they deem it ‘necessary.’ One legal expert linked to the Cuban Council of Churches and speaking anonymously told CSW that churches of all denominations and in multiple provinces are affected:

“They are applying the law rigorously. In the case of the churches it is worse. They propose to convert the church into a tenant. This has consequences. For example, the ‘new owner’ is able to decide what the church can or cannot do in this place. That is to say they lose autonomy. They cannot accept this. The situation is complicated.”1

The legal expert added that the most vulnerable churches are those to which the government has refused to issue a licence recognising them as a registered place of worship.2 However, at least one historic church property was targeted in the first half of the year. In May 2015 the leadership of the Maranatha First Baptist Church, in the city of Holguin, was informed by provincial Communist
Party and Housing Ministry officials that their property is to be confiscated and their status changed from owners to tenants. The church is affiliated with the Eastern Baptist Convention of Cuba, and over 800 people worship there on a weekly basis. It has held title to the property since 1947 and was officially registered in May 1954. Government officials threatened to confiscate the church property once before in 2011, but backed down after a high profile campaign; now, it seems, they may be attempting to apply the new legislation to justify their actions. Leaders of the church have published an open letter calling for support as they resist government attempts to seize their
property. Other churches have also reported threats of confiscation or destruction of property, which appear to be related to the application of Legal Decree 322. In May Reverend Fausto Polemo was informed by local authorities that his church in the city of Santiago de Cuba would be confiscated and demolished, and that he was prohibited from holding any more services. The church belongs to the Assemblies of God denomination, which is registered and recognized in Cuba. Similarly, Pastors Osmel and Madeleine de Calderón were told that their church in Loma Blanca, Upper Mayarí, Santiago Province and affiliated with the Apostolic Movement,3 must stop holding services. Members of their church have also been approached by government officials, warned to stop attending the church, and told to distance themselves from the couple. Reverend Alain Toledano, another Apostolic Movement leader, was told that his property in the city of Santiago would be confiscated. He has continued to make public calls for the government to clarify the status of his
property.

In May, a Request for Precautionary Measures was filed with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission on behalf of Reverend Yiorvis Bravo, another Apostolic Movement leader. In 2013 a Camaguey court sanctioned a government move to expropriate his home, which is also the meeting place of his church. While the case predates the enactment of Legal Decree 322, the tactics
appear identical. Reverend Bravo was approached by Ministry of Housing officials in 2013 who offered to allow him and his family to remain in the property as tenants, if they agreed to submit all church activities for approval in advance. Reverend Bravo refused to comply and remains in the home, but while government officials have not yet made any move to evict the family, they have continued to maintain that the property is now theirs and they reserve the right to evict or relocate the family at any time.

1 More information on the law can be found at www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2014/09/24/cuales-son-las-principales-modificaciones-a-la-ley-general-de-la-vivienda/#.VXCxNM9Viko (Spanish)

2 Because the government has allowed only a handful of new church buildings to be built since the 1959 Revolution, despite massive growth in the churches through the 1990s and 2000s, a huge proportion of Protestants and some Catholics meet in what are usually referred to as house churches. This name is applied to any building where religious services are held and which is not legally registered as a place of worship. While the government mostly tolerated these house churches for
many years, it made it difficult and often impossible to register the buildings as places of worship. This meant that they were technically illegal and always vulnerable to harassment, fines and forced closure.

3 The government has refused to register the Apostolic Movement and considers it to be illegal.

Religious freedoms continue to deteriorate in Cuba

Cuba: Religious freedom violations continue to rise, baptist goes into exile  07/08/2014

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has today released a new report on religious freedom in Cuba, which shows that the number of documented violations of religious freedom almost doubled in the first half of 2014 compared to 2013.

From the beginning of 2014 to mid-July, CSW recorded 170 separate religious freedom violations, many of which involved dozens of victims. This followed the record of 180 documented cases in 2013, compared with 120 in 2012 and 40 in 2011. According to the report, which covers January 2013 through July 2014, religious groups across the spectrum of denominations all reported varying degrees of hostility from the government, while only a few reported any notable improvement.

CSW’s investigation showed that government agents continued to employ more brutal and public tactics than witnessed in previous years. Week after week, scores of women affiliated to the Ladies in White were physically and violently dragged away from Sunday morning church services by state security agents. Most were arbitrarily detained until 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. One of the most serious cases involved the destruction of a large church and pastoral home in Santiago de Cuba on 2 July 2014. Some religious leaders reported being temporarily detained and imprisoned multiple times over the course of the past year.

The report details the regular, severe and sustained harassment of Protestant pastors and lay workers in different parts of the country, as well as sporadic reports of violent beatings. This situation prompted Reverend Homero Carbonell, who for more than 50 years has been a leader in the Western Baptist Convention, a denomination recognised by the government, to accept asylum in the US on 31 July. In 2010, Reverend Carbonell published an open letter denouncing a sustained campaign of harassment against the Trinidad First Baptist Church in the city of Santa Clara. In the letter he announced his resignation as pastor and expressed hopes that his retirement would result a cessation of government persecution of the church. Despite his retirement, however, the Cuban government maintained pressure on the church, freezing its bank accounts, and continue to target Reverend Carbonell and his family.

The case of Reverend Carbonell and the Trinidad First Baptist Church is illustrative of some of the root causes behind the more general increase in religious freedom violations across Cuba, which include increased government efforts to separate perceived political dissidents from communities of faith, and heavy-handed attempts to control public manifestations of faith. Church leaders believe that Reverend Carbonell and the Trinidad First Baptist Church were singled out because of their refusal to cooperate with government demands to expel and shun members of dissident groups and their families, as well as their involvement in unauthorised pubic ecumenical activities, including a well-attended inter-denominational Easter parade through the city centre of Santa Clara in 2010.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, “It is distressing to see such a significant and sustained increase in reported violations of religious freedom in Cuba, even as the government claims to be committed to reforms in this area and others. We are deeply saddened that Reverend Carbonell, who dedicated so much of his life to ministry inside Cuba, was pushed by government harassment to the point of going into exile. It is disturbing to see some groups outside Cuba interpret concessions or privileges extended to a few religious groups as an overall improvement in religious freedom, even as other groups report continued and worsening persecution, resulting in religious inequality. As long as the Cuban government refuses to allow all religious organisations to function legally, to register all places of worship, including house churches, and to remove authority over all religious activity from the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, whose decisions are issued arbitrarily and cannot be appealed, there can be no religious freedom in Cuba. We call on the United States, on the European Union and other members of the international community, to hold the Cuban government to account and to set measurable benchmarks, including the three mentioned above, in order to judge more accurately any improvement in religious freedom in Cuba.”

http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=news&id=2120&rnd=0.1257593

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) condemns attack on Church by Castro agents

 

Cuban church under attack from government  25/10/2013

 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) condemns attempts by Cuban State Security and Communist Party officials to forcibly confiscate a property which serves as the national headquarters of the Apostolic Movement, one of the largest protestant Christian networks on the island.

Genuine NGOs and the 2013 UPR Review of Cuba

"Yet is it far better to light the candle than to curse the darkness." W.L. Watkins (1907)

United Nations Human Rights Council

UN Watch in their report "Massive Fraud: The Corruption of the 2013 UPR Review of Cuba" exposed how the Cuban government has corrupted and abused the Universal Periodic Review process. One of the regime's tactics was to flood the NGO process with front groups. In its summary, UN Watch described how:

Cuba used hundreds of front groups to hijack the United Nations compilation of NGO submissions and turn it into a propaganda sheet for the Castro Communist regime. While critiques of genuine NGOs do appear, they are overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of submissions by fraudulent “NGOs” that, if they do exist, are mere puppets of Cuba and its allies abroad. UN Watch examined 28 recent UPR country reviews. There were 9 NGO submissions on Turkmenistan, 12 on Romania, 23 on Germany, 32 on Russia, and, the highest, 48 on Canada. For Cuba, however, the number soars to an incredible 454. 

One way to counter the abuse and corruption of the process is to highlight the genuine NGOs that offered a genuine critique of the dictatorship in Cuba.  Respected international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Centrist Democrat International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters sans frontières submitted important reports as did independent groups from inside Cuba such as the Alianza Democrática Oriental, Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba, Coalición Central Opositora and the Movimiento Femenino por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks. Outside of Cuba diaspora organizations such as the Cuban Democratic Directorate and the Coalition of Cuban-American Women submitted reports.

The Universal Periodic Review Process

Below is a complete listing of these groups with links to their reports stored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

Alianza Democrática Oriental; comunicación conjunta para el examen periódico universal; Cuba
 http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/ADO_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_AlianzaDemocraticaOriental_S.pdf

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SUBMISSION TO THE UN UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW 16TH SESSION OF THE UPR WORKING GROUP, APRIL-MAY 2013
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/AI_UPR_CUB_s16_2013_AmnestyInternational_E.pdf

ASOCIACIÓN JURÍDICA CUBANA Cuba Información para el Examen Periódico Universal de la ONU
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/AJC_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_AsociacionJuridicaCubana_S.pdf

Contribution de Reporters sans frontières, organisation non gouvernementale dotée du statut consultatif spécial, à propos de la situation de la liberté de la presse à Cuba
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/RSF_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ReportersSansFronti%C3%A8res_F.pdf

Informe del Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos para el Grupo de Trabajo de la Revisión Periódica Universal (UPR)http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/OCDH_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ObservatorioCubanoDeDerechosHumanos_S.pdf

Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba. (CRDHC). En coordinación con los Círculos Democráticos Municipalistas. (CDM)
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS1_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission1_S.pdf

Coalición Central Opositora y Movimiento Femenino por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks Agresiones contra mujeres defensoras de derechos humanos en Cuba Revisión Periódica Universal de Cuba 2013
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS2_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission2_S.pdf

Contribución Conjunta del Centro de Información Legal “Cubalex” y la Asociación Cubana para el Desarrollo de la Educación Infantil
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS7_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission7_S.pdf

CUBA: SYSTEMATIC STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Coalition of Cuban-American Women
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCAW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CoalitionOfCubanAmericanWomen_E.pdf

Informe del Comite Ciudadano Contra los Malos Tratos.
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCCMT_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ComiteCiudadanoContraLosMalosTrat_S.pdf

Presentación de la Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional (CCDHRN)* para el Examen Periódico Universal (EPU)
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCDHRN_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Comisi%C3%B3nCubanaDeDerechosHumanosYRecoS.pdf

Comunicación Individual del Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL), ante el Examen Periódico Universal de Cuba.”
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CADAL_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CentroParaLaperturaYElDesarrolloDe_S.pdf

Individual report from the Centrist Democrat International for the April-May 2013 Universal Periodic Review of the government of Cuba
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CDI_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CentristDemocratInternational_S.pdf

Universal Periodic Review – 16th Session CSW – Stakeholder Submission CUBA
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CSW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ChristianSolidarityWorldwide_E.pdf

Extrajudicial Killings and Suspicious Deaths in Cuba 2009 - 2012
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/DDC_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_DirectorioDemocr%C3%A1ticoCubano_E.pdf

Human Rights Watch UPR Submission Cuba October 2012
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/HRW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_HumanRightsWatch_E.pdf

Three Kings Day in Cuba and religious freedom violations

Ladies in White in Cuba on January 6, 2013

Three Kings Day also known as the Epiphany was observed in 2013 by the regime in Cuba with detentions of children, the homes of activists stoned, and death threats.

At the same time opposition activists attended Mass and gave gifts to children to celebrate a holiday that has a long history in Cuba, although suppressed for decades by the Castro dictatorship. The Ladies in White together with the Cuban Patriotic Union organized an event with 250 children to celebrate the day of the Kings in Palmarito de Cauto.

Agents of the regime took part in acts of repression to sabotage efforts to celebrate The Epiphany on the Eve of Three Kings Day and on the holiday itself the Cuban government engaged in a campaign of intimidation and harassment. Rosa Maria Payá reported over twitter on January 5th at 4:27pm: "We just found out they have thrown a stone against the door of our house, I wonder what will be next."

At 10:23am on January 6, 2012 Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia reported over twitter that in "Santiago de Cuba: 3 kilometers from the city of Palma Soriano, the political police stopped a private passenger lorry with over 80 people. Detained in the truck were 60 children and adults traveling to ​​Palmarito de Cauto to participate in an activity for Three Kings Day.

Three Kings Day disappeared as a holiday in the early 1960s only to resurface in 1998, along with Christmas, with Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba. Nevertheless, religious repression in Cuba continues to be a serious problem. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported a dramatic increase in harassment and persecution of people of faith in Cuba in 2012 stating:

CSW documented 120 reported cases of religious freedom in 2012, up from a total of 30 in 2011, some of which involved entire churches and denominations and hundreds of people. The number does not include the men and women who were arrested and imprisoned for the duration of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in March which local human rights groups estimate to be upwards of 200.

The Castro regime is channeling the spirit of King Herod in trying to repress the free exercise of religion in Cuba and harassing children.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide: Cuban family barred from all religious activity by Castro regime

Christian Solidarity Worldwide calls on Castro regime to respect religious rights of Cuban Lady in White and her family.


Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that Caridad Caballero Batista (above right)and family have been barred by Cuban State Security from religious activities.

Cuba: Catholic dissident barred from religious activities 28/02/2012

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is calling on the Cuban government to respect the right of Caridad Caballero Batista, a member of the Ladies in White, and her family, to exercise their faith. Since 8 January Caballero Batista, her husband and 19 year-old son have been barred by the authorities from attending Catholic catechism classes and participating in any other religious activity.

Caballero Batista has told CSW that since the beginning of the year, police and state security agents have surrounded their family home each Sunday, preventing them from attending Sunday mass at the Jesus Christ Redeemer Church in the Pueblo Nuevo neighbourhood of Holguin City, located in Eastern Cuba. She said that the agents have also followed her husband, Esteban Sade Suarez, and son, Erik Esteban Sade Caballero, on their way to attend catechism, and have physically and at times violently prevented them from attending.

The family of three has completed two years of catechism and is working towards their First Communion and Confirmation. “God made us free and we are not going to stop trying to go to church,” Caballero Batista told CSW. “We want to receive communion and be confirmed in our church and we have worked hard for this. While are all sinners and need forgiveness, we have not broken any laws. All we ask is that the government respect our religious freedom.” She added that her son is not involved in any political activities or affiliated with any civil society group.

Over the past two months and in the run up to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island next month, CSW has seen a sharp increase in cases of religious freedom violations in Cuba. CSW has received reports each Sunday since the beginning of the year that across the country members of the Ladies in White group, the majority of whom are Roman Catholic, are being prevented by state security agents from attending religious services, or are severely harassed when they attempt to do so.

In addition to the targeting of Catholics, CSW has received reports that four Protestant church leaders were arrested and detained on February 25 in Bayamo, Granma Province while evangelising in the local bus station. According to local sources, one of those arrested, Juan Moreno, was so badly beaten by state security agents that he had to be hospitalized. The other three were released after being held for a few hours.

CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, “As the country gears up for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, the Cuban authorities must be held to account for their continuous and escalating violations of religious freedom. We strongly urge the Cuban government to guarantee Caridad Caballero Batista and her family the right to practice their faith in peace and urge the authorities to cease their harassment of and attacks on other members of the Ladies in White as they attend religious services. Attacks on those who are merely trying to practice their religious faith must stop.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=press&id=1319&search=