The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the U.S. government impose sanctions on Cuban governmental institutions that restrict religious freedom for Cubans.
USCIRF found in a report issued Tuesday that surveyed Cuba’s major religious freedom violations in 2019 that, in part because of a new constitution, Cuban authorities have increasingly restricted the rights of many Christians and people of other faiths in the country.
Cuba’s new constitution, enacted in early 2019, removes specific references to “freedom of conscience” and citizens changing religious beliefs, which the report found restricted the freedom of religious practice. It also found that Cuba’s Office of Religious Affairs, which requires religions to register with the state, manipulates its power to “tightly control religious activity or exert pressure on religious groups.”
More than 204 people, including about 20 religious leaders, were “arbitrarily” prevented from leaving Cuba in 2019, the report found. These people also included human rights activists and journalists reporting on religious freedom in Cuba.
The report also found that religious leaders seeking to travel to Cuba often must travel through a third-party country, which is “prohibitively expensive.” USCIRF recommended that the United States remedy this by prioritizing visa processing for religious leaders trying to travel to Cuba.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Cuban government in 2019 for its poor human rights record. The State Department in December placed Cuba on its list of severe violators of religious liberty.
“We believe that everyone, everywhere, at all times, should have the right to live according to the dictates of their conscience,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “We will continue to challenge state and non-state entities that seek to infringe upon those fundamental rights and to ensure they are held to account for their actions.”
