MADRID, Spain.- During 2022, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) registered 1,030 cases of violations of religious freedoms by the island’s regime.
Through a release published this Monday, the OCDH highlighted that they were not only against people publicly identified as religious, but also against others who regularly or sporadically attend religious services as an expression of faith or civic commitment.
“It is not exclusively about the harassment of religious leaders in the exercise of their ministry, but about a denial of religious freedom in its broadest and deepest sense, which is the right to act in various public spaces, especially the social one, in coherence with the values that one professes”, says the document.
Likewise, it points out that freedom of worship is also being violated, in the actions, for example, against the Ladies in White, prevented from attending mass every Sunday.
Among the methods of repression applied by the Cuban government, the Observatory verified arbitrary arrests, cases of besieged families, and summonses and interrogations in official offices. In this regard, he mentioned the names of Dagoberto Valdés, Yoandy Izquierdo, Javier Valdés Delgado, Dagoberto Valdés Delgado and Kenny Fernández Delgado.
The latter, parish priest of the Church of Madruga (Mayabeque), was harassed, summoned and interrogated by the political police on March 11, 2022. He was also warned about his posts on social networks and was prohibited from distributing the message of the Catholic Bishops of Cuba on the “Family Code”.
On the other hand, the shepherd Alain Toledo he was forced into exile by constant harassment. Toledano was prevented by the regime from traveling to the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.
Regarding the imprisoned religious, the OCDH recalled that the pastor Lawrence Rosales He is sentenced to seven years in prison for his participation in the demonstrations of July 11, 2021 (11J).
Rosales, like political prisoners Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, is denied religious assistance.
Among the religious leaders imprisoned for political reasons is also the Yoruba priest Loreto Hernández García, who suffers from diabetes and hypertension. She is not receiving the medicines she needs and she is not receiving medical attention in the Guamajal prison, in Villa Clara.
Faced with this situation, the organization, based in Madrid, asked international institutions and organizations and democratic governments to firmly condemn these outrages.
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