Freedom to practice your religion in communist Cuba is virtually nonexistent, even less so the freedom to express your opinion. If you do either or worse, both, you get a visit from State Security thugs.
Via Martí Noticias (my translation):
Regime threatens religious YouTuber with prison: They’re worried about young Cubans
State Security agents in Cuba summoned young religious YouTuber Iván Daniel Calás Navarro for questioning about his social media posts and threatened to prosecute him if he spoke out against the government.
“I was warned not to speak out against the authorities because I could go to prison. I preached the gospel to them,” Calás Navarro, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the University of Havana, said on Facebook.
The 20-year-old, a leader at the Nazareth Baptist Church in the Víbora neighborhood of the capital municipality of Diez de Octubre, runs a YouTube channel with over seven thousand subscribers called “Voz de Verdad” (Voice of Truth), where he regularly uploads videos on various religious topics.
Iván Daniel received a summons to appear at the Zapata and C police station in Vedado on the same day he turned 20. Upon arriving at the station, he says he asked the officers who questioned him if he could pray out loud before they began. “They allowed me, and when I finished, they let me know that it was evidence that there is Religious Freedom in Cuba.”
“That’s when they started warning me about the consequences I could face if I speak out against authorities, joining a (rather long) list of pastors inside and outside of Cuba who are out of favor with State Security,” he explained.
Despite the threats received, he asserts he did not sign “any papers” or make “any commitments” with the political police. “Yes, I fear for my life. But God is in control. God is stronger than the State Security Department (DSE),” he affirmed.
This is not the first time Calás Navarro has been interrogated. According to him, when he was going through Mandatory Military Service, the officers were “very concerned” that he would become “the next leader” of young people in his church, which ultimately happened.
“They are worried that I associate with young people, that I have participated, served, and been part of the leadership of events with hundreds of young Cuban Christians. They are concerned about the youth,” he said, saying that one of the topics he was asked about during the interrogation was his refusal to vote in the elections of the University Student Federation (FEU) in his classroom. “I refused (because they insisted) to vote, in order to achieve 100% voting in the classroom. I didn’t do it.”
Violations of religious freedom in Cuba
The human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) documented 657 violations of religious freedom in Cuba in 2022, compared to the 272 recorded the previous year.
“The situation regarding freedom of religion or belief deteriorated once again in Cuba in 2022, and without significant and concerted international intervention, this trend is likely to continue,” said CSW’s Head of Advocacy, Anna Lee Stangl.
In its annual report for 2023, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for the first time recommended including Cuba in the “Countries of Particular Concern List,” which includes other nations whose governments “engage in or tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”
“The Cuban government strictly controlled religious activity through surveillance, harassment of religious leaders and laypeople, forced exile, and mistreatment of religious prisoners of conscience. Some specific examples include authorities subjecting pastors to detention, interrogations, threats of prison sentences on false charges, and confiscation of property,” Commissioner Frederick A. Davie said during the report presentation.
Last June, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) published its “Second Study on Religious Freedom in Cuba.” During its preparation, the Madrid-based organization conducted over 1,300 interviews with Cuban citizens residing on the island.
“68% of those interviewed know someone who professes a religion and has been harassed, oppressed, threatened, or hindered in their daily life for reasons related to their faith… The prevailing opinion is that among the reasons a believer may face harassment, threats, or discrimination are ‘having a political stance based on their faith’ (59%) and ‘speaking publicly about their faith’ (45%).”
Yaxis Cires, Director of Strategy at OCDH, stated at that time to Martí Noticias that “despite the image the Cuban regime wants to portray of having good relations with the churches, what happens in reality is that these rights related to a person’s freedom to not only to attend a specific worship service, but to publicly express themselves as a Christian, as an evangelical, as someone who believes in certain values, are widely violated.”