Cuba: Government Continues Crackdown On Christians, Religious Freedom

(Worthy News) – A new report shows that the government of Cuba continued an intensifying crackdown on religious freedom, and Christianity in particular, in 2023. Published on Mar. 14, the report was compiled by the UK-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) advocacy organization.

The current crackdown was triggered by the anti-government protests that swept over Cuba on July 11, 2021. Thousands of Cubans took to the streets in major cities to protest living conditions, lack of food and medicine, continual electricity blackouts, and the state’s generally repressive approach to the people it is supposed to serve.

In suppressing the protests, the government took to constricting religious freedom. “Religious groups of all types, including Afro-Cuban groups, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants, and Roman Catholics, registered and unregistered associations, including some that belong to the Cuba Council of Churches (CCC), all reported Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) violations,” CSW said in its report.

“CSW observed a return to hardline tactics ….when it came to political prisoners in the form of the consistent refusal of religious visits or the right to receive religious materials, religious leaders threatened and pressured to expel the family members of political prisoners from their congregations as part of a policy of social isolation, children subjected to physical and verbal abuse at school because of their religious beliefs, religious leaders of unregistered religious groups repeatedly harassed, threatened and fined, and religious leaders of registered groups targeted for intrusive surveillance, repeat interrogations, and other pressure tactics,” the report reads.

According to CSW, the Cuban government has especially targeted religious leaders who gave material or spiritual support to families of political prisoners. Moreover, those whom the government considered to be dissidents have been systematically prohibited from attending religious services, usually by being temporarily held in custody.

“The government appears to still be depending on a strategy of harsh oppression and repressive laws to bring the population under as much of its control as possible,” CSW said.

Ruled by an authoritarian communist/post communist regime, Cuba ranks 22 on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

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