Human rights in Castro's Cuba - Fidel Castro

US Department of State Bulletin, Feb, 1987

Writings not published by the stateare not reproduced or circulated even clandestinely, except in the closest circle of friends. Even there one must proceed with caution because of the vigilance of the block committees and the omnipresent State Security. Punishment is severe for writing or possessing unauthorized literature. Artists and writers who attempt to step outside these constraints pay heavily for their exercise of artistic freedom. Many are imprisoned and tortured. Forced renunciation of one's artistic works--obtained through physical or psychological coercion, including threats against one's family--is another technique used against artists and writers. The lack of political content in their writings does not serve to protect authors. It is not enough in Cuba that art be nonpolitical; it must also actively serve the revolution.

Religious. Repression of religion inCuba is thorough and pervasive. Religious broadcasts are totally prohibited (except for news of foreign clergy defending the Castro regime shown to prisoners of conscience to demoralize them). The construction of new churches is severely restricted. Those who try to maintain religious practice find innumerable roadblocks. Many churches have been closed; some have been desecrated. The few still open are closely monitored by block committees. Only about 200 priests remain in Cuba, compared to about 720 before the revolution.

The observance of religious holidaysis next to impossible, and the celebration of Christmas is specifically prohibited. Christmas trees, so common in Eastern Europe, are banned as counterrevolutionary symbols in Cuba, and the celebration of Holy Week has been replaced by a celebration of the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Political meetings and work obligations are regularly scheduled to conflict with religious occasions, and Cuban law prohibits the observance of religious events when they conflict with work obligations or patriotic celebrations. Processions on holy days are banned.

Parents of children who mentionGod to their classmates risk being reprimanded for teaching "unscientific' ideas that are "remnants of an obscurantist past.' If the parents insist, they can be arrested for the crime of "ideological deviationism.'

Because they cannot belong to theCommunist Party, believers are excluded from higher positions of employment. They also are prohibited from teaching economics, politics, philosophy, social sciences, and other courses that might have "any political or ideological overtones.' Believers find it almost impossible to obtain higher education because ideology is a decisive condition for admission to universities. Practicing Catholics are expelled from the university. Believers who obtain low-level jobs are unable to advance because there is a "political test' for promotions. Proof of ideological soundness is required before the purchase of durable consumer goods and sometimes for housing.

The Jewish community in Cuba hasbeen reduced from 15,000 before the revolution to 800, with no permanent rabbi. Members of the Jewish community also face job and educational discrimination and are severely restricted in attempts to pass on the faith to their children.