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A Brief Historical and Legal Description of Religious Liberty
The Republic of Cuba was established in 1902, became a charter member of the United Nations (UN) in 19451 and a member of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1948. Cuba consists of 14 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth). The Cuban population is comprised of mainly three groups, with approximately 66 percent white and mainly of Spanish descent, 22 percent of mixed racial heritage and 12 percent black.2 Almost all are native-born. Professed Roman Catholics have declined from more than 70 percent to about 33 percent of the population since 1957, the beginning of Castro's regime.3 Only one percent are Protestants, with Pentecostalism the predominant tradition, and about 50 percent of Cubans consider themselves non-religious.4
Cuba is currently governed under a constitution adopted in 1976, as subsequently amended. The constitution defines the country as a socialist state in which all power belongs to the working people.
Cuba is a totalitarian state led by President Fidel Castro. Castro is the Chief of State, Head of Government, First Secretary of the Communist Party, and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.5 The Communist Party is the only legal political party allowed in Cuba and [it] is ultimately controlled by Castro. The Government restricts basic civil rights such as freedom of expression, assembly and the right to privacy. Many of Castro's policies have alienated Cuba from the rest of Latin America, leading Cuba to be expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962.6 Tensions have also remained high with the United States, as Cuba has been accused of aiding leftist rebels in El Salvador, and as Cuban advisers have given aid to the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.7
Constitutional Provisions and Legislation Relating to Religion
The Cuban Constitution reformed the status of religious freedom establishing:
Article 55. The State, that recognizes, respects, and guarantees the freedom of conscience and religion, also recognizes, respects, and guarantees the freedom of every citizen to change religious beliefs or not to have any, and to profess, within the confines of the law, the religious worship of his/her preference. The law regulates the relationship of the State with religious institutions.The article on religion in the previous Constitution stated:
Article 54. The socialist state, that bases its activity and educates the people in the scientific materialistic conception of the universe, recognizes and guarantees the freedom of conscience, the individual right to profess any religious belief and to practice, within the confines of the law, the religion of his preference.8In recent years, the Government has eased somewhat the harsher aspects of its repression of religious freedom. In 1991 it allowed religious adherents to join the Communist Party.9 In July 1992, it amended the Constitution to prohibit religious discrimination and removed references to "scientific materialism," i.e., atheism, as the basis for the Cuban State.10 While the Protestant Ecumenical Council praised such actions, the Catholic Church replied by letters with concern over the gap between the Government's rhetoric and actions.11 In late 1993, the Government harshly criticized the Catholic bishops' pastoral letter calling for national reconciliation and dialogue.12
Despite legal changes, religious persecution continues. The State prohibits members of the armed forces from allowing anyone in their household to observe religious practices.13 It exempts elderly relatives only if their religious beliefs do not influence other family members and are not "damaging to the revolution."14
The Government requires churches and other religious groups to register with the provincial registry of associations of the city of Havana and to obtain official recognition.15 The government prohibits construction of new churches, and official recognition of all religious holidays ended in 1961.16 At that time, the government prohibited nearly all religious processions outside church grounds and denied churches access to mass media.17
Despite obstacles set up by the Government, church attendance has grown in recent years.18
Recent Reported Cases of Religious Intolerance
On August 11, 1995, Ricardo Luna, Director of Open Doors Latin America (a Protestant international ministry dedicated to the defense of persecuted Christians), and a fellow missionary were called to an "immigration meeting" by Cuban authorities in Havana and were threatened with imprisonment because of their "counter-revolutionary activities."19 After questioning Luna and the other missionary, Cuban authorities expelled them, threatening them with imprisonment if they, or other personnel from Open Doors, arrived in Cuba again.20
On June 7, 1995 two Baptist preachers, Miguel Angel Leon and Jorge Luis Brito, were sentenced to six years in prison.21 The charges against them were related to their Christian ministry.22
On May 24, 1995 popular Pentecostal Pastor Orson Vila was sentenced to a two-year jail term, charged with "insubordination" and holding "illegal meetings" in his home.23 According to Open Doors, Vila was tried and sentenced within hours of his detention at his home in Camagüey Province, east of Havana. Vila, a district superintendent for the Assemblies of God, reportedly had oversight of a house church movement with some 2,500 members. In June 1995, The Rutherford Institute wrote directly to Cuban President Fidel Castro, protesting Vila's imprisonment. In addition, the Institute requested the immediate intervention of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance.24 Close to twenty U.S. Senators and Congressmen wrote to Cuban President Fidel Castro protesting the imprisonment of Pastor Orson Vila, stating, "We believe that these actions constitute an infringement upon fundamental human rights including freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of movement and due process of law."25 In January 1996, The Rutherford Institute asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to open a case on behalf of Pastor Vila.
Since late May 1995, sources working in Cuba said the government closed at least 86 house churches in Camagüey Province.26 According to Open Doors, the Cuban Ministry of Justice sent letters to house church leaders of several denominations across the country urging immediate voluntary closure because such meetings are "illegal" and "illicit."27
In January 1994, state security agents arrested Eliezer Veguilla, executive member of the Western Convention of Baptists, and Miguel Angel Leon, a Baptist minister in Cienfuegos province, for counterrevolutionary activities and enemy propaganda, respectively.28 Officials told Veguilla's family that he was under investigation because he had associated with Western diplomats.29 They released Veguilla after two months; but continued to hold Leon.30
Though technically illegal, house churches have been part of a recent and growing trend in Cuba due to strict government restrictions on the construction of new churches. Sources working in Cuba said that since 1991, the government has allowed churches to meet in home groups, although the policy has never been incorporated into law.31 There are an estimated 5,000 house churches throughout the country.32
The Government has continued to use the Penal Code to persecute Jehovah's Witnesses and, to a lesser extent, Seventh-Day Adventists.33 The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR's) monitor and often harass Jehovah's Witnesses and Adventists because the Government considers them to be "active religious enemies of the revolution" for their refusal to accept obligatory military service or participate in state organizations. The CDR's also maintain surveillance over spiritualists (santeros) who give "consultations."34
In 1995, a Catholic spokesman said that repression against the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba has diminished, but the church is still only at the level it was when the evangelization of the Americas first began 500 years ago. According to Father Agustin Roman, Auxiliary Bishop of Miami: "If the (Cuban) church in 1995 is not permitted to participate in the life of its country or to offer its message via the mass media, the church is as it was in 1492 when Columbus discovered America."35 He did acknowledge that "Today, the church is able to do more than what it could do in the first years (of Cuban revolution),36 adding, however, that the indirect repression, the silencing (of the church) has not ceased" in Cuba.37 "The church is not allowed to do what it is able to do in any other country of the hemisphere. For example it is not able to use radio, television or the press. Therefore, at this moment, it is not free," Roman said.38 Still, Roman asserted that the Catholic Church continues to carry out its work in the midst of what he called "tremendous limitations."39
In 1990, Guillermo Campos Muñiz, leader of a Christian youth group, was sentenced to eight years in prison.40 He is currently being held in the Combinado del Este prison, in Havana. According to international human rights organizations, Campos Muñiz was imprisoned because of his position on behalf of human rights and religious liberty.41
ENDNOTES 1. "Cuba." Microsoft Encarta. (Microsoft Corporation, Funk & Wagnalls Corporation, 1994): 7.2. ibid.
3. ibid, 2,7.
4. ibid.
5. U.S Department of State. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1994): 409.
6. Encarta, 9.
7. ibid.
8. Pedro C. Moreno, "Constitutional Reforms in Latin America Promoting Religious Freedom," at the XXXI Annual Conference of the Inter-American Bar Association (Paper Presented in Puerto Rico: June 25-30, 1994): 15.
9. U.S. Department of State (1994): 371.
10. ibid.
11. ibid.
12. U.S Department of State. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1995): 371.
13. ibid.
14. U.S Department of State (1994): 371.
15. ibid.
16. ibid.
17. ibid.
18. ibid.
19. ibid.
20. "Campaña de Oración de Acción." Puertas Abiertas, August 1995.
21. Solidarité chrétienne et internationale, Genéve, Suisse, September 1995.
22. ibid.
23. Kenneth D. MacHarg, "Rights Group Urges Action on Behalf of Imprisoned Pastor." News Network International (January 19, 1996): 14.
24. Kim A. Lawton, "Rights Groups Protest New Crackdown on House Churches," News Network International (June 16, 1995): 6.
25. Kim Lawton, "Members of U.S. Congress Protest Pastor's Imprisonment." News Network (July 28, 1995): 8.
26. Lawton, "Rights Groups Protest New Crackdown on House Churches," 6.
27. ibid.
28. U.S. Department of State (1994): 371.
29. ibid.
30. ibid.
31. Lawton, "Rights Groups Protest New Crackdown on House Churches," 6.
32. ibid.
33. U.S. Department of State (1994): 371.
34. ibid.
35. Lawton, "Members of U.S. Congress Protest Pastor's Imprisonment," 9. Roman spoke at the annual meeting of "Bishops and Catholic Priests in Exile," which was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Thirty delegates from the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean attended the meeting July 11-13.
36. ibid.
37. ibid.
38. ibid.
39. ibid.
40. Solidarité chrétienne et internationale, Genéve, Suisse, February 1994.
41. ibid.
Source: Handbook on Religious Liberty Around the World, Pedro C. Moreno, Editor. Charlottesville, VA: The Rutherford Institute. This report is reprinted here by special arrangement with the Rutherford Institute and may not be reproduced or mirrored on another webside without written permission of the Rutherford Institute.
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