Saturday, January 10, 2015

The situation of religious liberty in Cuba

The situation of religious liberty in Cuba / Mario Lleonart
Posted on January 9, 2015

The delegation from Instituto Patmos, invited by United for Human Rights
to the celebration of the 66th anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.

During all of 2014 this blog, Cubano Confesante, I examined the best
part of the thirty questions that doubt the supposed religious liberties
in Cuba, which were launched in September of 2013 during the trip we
took to Washington, invited by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

These analyses were the object of discussion in forums and workshops
convened by the Instituto Patmos in various sites in Cuba, and at times
also some of those posts were the fruit of these. This contributed to
sharing these contents in an island where access to internet is difficult.

Arriving precisely at the end of the year we arrived in the said review
at the middle of those questions, the fifteenth, having realized that
the majority of them, lamentably, far from being no longer applicable,
had maintained or had increased. Only in the case of two can we breathe
more easily:

Why the failure to account for the wave of repression that took place
during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI during which hundreds of people
were arbitrarily detained or threatened, and of whom still remain in
prison and threatened with severe penalties Sonia Garro and her husband
Ramón Alejandro Muñoz*?

It continues still without giving account about the repressive wave, not
the regime in Cuba that triggered it, nor the Vatican that tolerated it,
have given explanations in this regard. But at least Sonia Garro and
Alejandro Ramón were let out of prison on December 9 to be prisoners in
their own homes as a home detainment. We will continue arguing this
question until there is accountability concerning the repression which
attracted representatives of civil society in Cuba in the March 2012
visit of Benedicto XVI. And until Sonia and Ramon have the freedom they
deserve.

Why not free the United States citizen Alan Gross, who was left a
prisoner in Cuba for supporting with technology the Jewish Cuban
community and who serves as a warning to anyone else who decides to be
supportive with any other existing religious communities?

Fortunately since December 17, Alan Gross is free. It ended an outrage
that lasted five years and which clearly was a kidnapping that the
regime in Cuba used in order to pressure the Government of the United
States to release their five spies discovered as part of the Red Avispa
network, which was operating in its territory.

Throughout the year we were publishing, among others, a series of posts
dedicated to reviewing the thirty questions whose validity is
unfortunately preserved almost in its entirety. [Note to English
readers: as not all these posts were translated the list is not
reproduced here.]

*Translator's note: Since this post was written they have been released.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

28 December 2014

Source: The situation of religious liberty in Cuba / Mario Lleonart |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-situation-of-religious-liberty-in-cuba-at-the-close-of-2014-the-review-of-the-thirty-questions-during-the-entire-year-in-the-blog-cubano-confesante-mario-lleonart/

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