Members of the Association of Free Yorubas of Cuba (Asociación de Yorubas Libres de Cuba, or “Free Yorubas”) are regular victims of harassment by Cuban State Security.
The association was founded in 2012 by Yorubas who disagreed with the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, which is controlled by the government watchdog Office of Religious Affairs (ORA). Free Yorubas have been subject to arbitrary detentions and beatings, destruction of ceremonial objects, police monitoring, and searches-and-seizures without probable cause. State hostility towards the Free Yorubas seems to have escalated since early February 2020, when they challenged Ms. Caridad Diego, head of the ORA, to a public debate on freedom of conscience.
Free Yorubas Public Relations head Ms. Eliaisys Almeida Pavón was detained in Placetas, Villa Clara, on February 24, 2020. Executive Secretary and Vice President and married couple Ms. Donaida Pérez Paseiro and Mr. Loreto Hernández García were detained and threatened on March 11. Ms. Pérez alleges in her statement, the officials mocked all faiths, professing that “there is only one god, Fidel Castro,” and stating an obscenity about God, the saints, and orishas. On August 3, three members of the Free Yorubas were separately summoned to the Placetas, Villa Clara police station and threatened. On September 30, two Free Yorubas leaders were held overnight and beaten; one of the women left police custody with a broken arm.
The regime regularly uses police citations to harass and intimidate Free Yorubas and other believers independent of the state. The Global Liberty Alliance continues to monitor the Cuban regime’s treatment of the Free Yorubas and will fight for their freedom of belief.
The association was founded in 2012 by Yorubas who disagreed with the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, which is controlled by the government watchdog Office of Religious Affairs (ORA). Free Yorubas have been subject to arbitrary detentions and beatings, destruction of ceremonial objects, police monitoring, and searches-and-seizures without probable cause. State hostility towards the Free Yorubas seems to have escalated since early February 2020, when they challenged Ms. Caridad Diego, head of the ORA, to a public debate on freedom of conscience.
Free Yorubas Public Relations head Ms. Eliaisys Almeida Pavón was detained in Placetas, Villa Clara, on February 24, 2020. Executive Secretary and Vice President and married couple Ms. Donaida Pérez Paseiro and Mr. Loreto Hernández García were detained and threatened on March 11. Ms. Pérez alleges in her statement, the officials mocked all faiths, professing that “there is only one god, Fidel Castro,” and stating an obscenity about God, the saints, and orishas. On August 3, three members of the Free Yorubas were separately summoned to the Placetas, Villa Clara police station and threatened. On September 30, two Free Yorubas leaders were held overnight and beaten; one of the women left police custody with a broken arm.
The regime regularly uses police citations to harass and intimidate Free Yorubas and other believers independent of the state. The Global Liberty Alliance continues to monitor the Cuban regime’s treatment of the Free Yorubas and will fight for their freedom of belief.
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