By Alejandra Garcia and Bill Hackwell on December 6, 2022
photo: Bill Hackwell
Cuba is a mosaic of religious expressions. Although it is a mostly secular country, there is a mixture of multiple beliefs, inherited from the first inhabitants of the island, the indigenous, then, from the centuries of colonization, from African ancestors, and from Haitian, Arab, Chinese, and other migrants. All the beliefs inherited from our ancestors coexist in harmony in today’s Cuba. But the U.S. has the audacity to say otherwise.
This past Friday, Cuba and Nicaragua were included in a list created unilaterally by Washington and in which appear nations that “systematically violate” religious freedom, in the opinion of the U.S. government. The list could entail possible sanctions against those countries.
Press reports indicate that China, Saudi Arabia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan appear again this year on the list of Countries of Special Concern, drawn up annually by the State Department.
According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), this decision was taken after examining the “deterioration” of the religious freedom climate in the country. The accusation is broad and does not cite anything specific. It is just like “we said it so it has to be true.”
“Once again, the U.S. government spreads dishonest accusations to maintain an unsustainable policy of abuse against the Cuban people,” the minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez immediately wrote on Twitter, after learning about the news.
The whole country is upset. There is broad religious freedom on the island, which is expressed in legal documents and in the existence of a wide and diverse religious universe. Cubans practice and organize their beliefs in dissimilar and varied religious institutions and organizations.
Despite the secular condition of the Cuban State, Constitution expressly establishes the equality of all religious manifestations before the law and the right of all citizens of the country to profess the religious worship of their preference, to change their beliefs, or to have none at all. Article 15 of the Constitution clearly states, ‘The State recognizes, respects, and guarantees religious liberty.’ And Article 42 elaborates even further, “All people are equal before the law, receive the same protection and treatment from the authorities, and enjoy the same rights, liberties, and opportunities, without any discrimination for reasons of sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ethnic origin, skin color, religious belief, disability, national or territorial origin, or any other personal condition.”
The Catholic Church has a strong presence in Cuba, and it has managed to preserve its position, even after Cuba’s revolution until today. We also have many other religious groups including the Yoruba culture, the Abakuá male secret group, Protestants, Judaism and Freemasonry. All are fraternal associations, which are separate from the State, but have the same rights and duties and have representation at the highest levels of government and popular decision.
If Cuba violates religious freedom how is it, for example, that during the campaign to adopt the country’s Family Code the Cuban Catholic Bishop and many of the Pentecostal churches were free to urge people to vote no on what is arguably one of the broadest and most progressive social legislations of guaranteed human and family rights in the world?
The US just loves to assume the position of the moral authority in the world and when it comes to Cuba it is constantly throwing mud on the wall hoping it will stick. This year it was first the spurious addition of Cuba to the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism and now this month it is the list of violators of religious freedoms.
The problem of course is that all these lists come with it some sort of immediate negative economic effect on the island while giving ammunition to the network of fake news distributors who the US supports. While the accusations are ridiculous they illustrate just how far the empire of the North will go to try and destroy us and the gains of our socialist project.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – U