Cuba Extends Religious Repression, Report Says
by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
HAVANA (Worthy News) – Communist-ruled Cuba has extended its “repression” of religious and faith groups, including devout Christians, in almost every area, according to a new report released Thursday.
Advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) told Worthy News that its report ‘No Respite: The Systematic Suppression of Freedom of Religion or Belief in Cuba’ documented 624 cases involving religious rights violations in 2024.
The report found that “religious groups of all types, including Afro-Cuban groups, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants, Roman Catholics, and registered and unregistered associations, continue to be affected by violations including arbitrary detention.”
Additionally, there was also “intrusive surveillance, repeat interrogations, threats, harassment, and, in the case of some children, physical and verbal abuse at school because of their religious beliefs.”
The report noted an uptick in “the application of fines on religious leaders in 2024, generally for leading unauthorized religious activities, holding religious activities in locations not approved for religious use, or both.”
That referred to home churches and other worship services closely watched by authorities. “Religious leaders and congregations who attempted to respond to humanitarian needs, which became even more acute in many parts of the island in 2024, were also harassed and fined,” CSW added in its report.
‘VIOLATING PRISON RULES’
Cuba’s government also continued to violate “systematically the Nelson Mandela Rules (the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners) by consistently denying political prisoners the right to receive religious materials and religious visits,” the report alleged.
Additionally, Christians and other religious leaders “were also threatened and pressured to expel the family members of political prisoners from their congregations as part of a policy of social isolation,” CSW established.
The report stressed that “It is now even more vital that governments around the world, and especially Cuba’s friends and neighbors in Latin America, emphatically voice concerns about Cuba’s consistent violations of human rights, including [Freedom of Religion or Belief] FoRB, and seek ways to support independent civil society in Cuba, including religious groups.”
Ultimately, the future of Cuba “lies with its people; those around the world who believe in the principles of democracy and fundamental human rights must stand with them in their peaceful pursuit of political and social change,” the report concluded.
However, CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl told Worthy News that her advocacy group “remains immensely inspired by those in Cuba who continue to stand up and speak out for freedom of religion or belief and other fundamental human rights, often at great risk to their own freedom and wellbeing.”
She added, “We stand in solidarity with these individuals, and all those who have been forced into exile on account of their religion or belief, or their peaceful defense of human rights, and call on the international community to do more to hold the Cuban government to account for its severe and ongoing repression of the Cuban people.”
PASTORS AWAIT TRIAL
Pressure sometimes helps, Christians suggested, adding that Assemblies of God Pastor Luis Guillermo Borjas, who faces charges of “disrespect and disobeying the authorities” alongside his wife Roxana Rojas, also a pastor, was released on bail on May 24.
Pastors Borjas and Rojas were detained on May 19 after referencing their Christian faith in a military tribunal at which their son was being tried on a charge of attempting to evade obligatory military service, Worthy News reported at the time.
Pastor Borjas’ trial was scheduled for June 9, while Pastor Rojas has been “permitted” to have her legal process and trial take place from home after she was taken to the hospital unconscious on the night of her detention due to heart issues, Christians said.
The pastors’ son, Kevin Laureido Rojas, who has a medical exemption for a psychiatric condition that makes him unable to perform the military service that is required of all Cuban males at the age of 18, remains in a military prison.
Anna Lee Stangl told Worthy News that “CSW continues to call for the complete dismissal of the unjust charges that have been leveled against Pastors Luis Guillermo Borjas and Roxana Rojas, and for the immediate and unconditional release of Kevin Laureido Rojas.”
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