PRISONERS in Cuba are systematically prevented from practising their faith, being able to read the Bible or other religious texts, or having access to a chaplain, a new report says.
Harsh restrictions on available religious materials and support are becoming widespread in the country’s prison system, as the numbers of political prisoners have risen sharply since a crackdown began in response to widespread street protests in 2021 against food and medicine shortages.
A recent study suggests that Cuba has 90,000 people in custody: the second highest incarceration rate in the world. Though several hundred prisoners have been released after discussions with the Vatican, a recent report by the organisation Prisoner Defenders suggested that 1150 were still in custody.
Interviews with 181 prisoners were carried out by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, which campaigns for persecuted Christians. It interviewed Christians, atheists and agnostics, and adherents of indigenous religions, all of whom were serving sentences of between one and 23 years. One hundred and two were classed as political prisoners.
Members of faith groups reported being denied access to a faith leader, or their religious text, or from meeting with other members of the same faith community in prison.
Prisoners said that they were denied access to religious materials because of the accusation of being “counter-revolutionists”, and were threatened with loss of benefits and being put into solitary confinement if they were caught praying or singing.
CSW’s report says: “It is clear from the results of this study that freedom of religion or belief [FoRB] is not only systematically violated throughout Cuba’s prison system but is weaponised and used as a coercion and punishment tactic on prisoners.”
Its 2008 report said that the withholding of FoRB rights was mostly used against political prisoners as a psychological tactic. In contrast, in 2025, prisoners held for both political and non-political alleged crimes generally experience FoRB violations in the same way, it says.
“The Nelson Mandela Rules — guidelines meant to ensure the human treatment of all prisoners — are ignored by the Cuban government. The authorities deliberately and systematically fail to uphold the right to practise one’s faith, to be visited by a leader of one’s own religious group, and to keep religious literature.”
CSW has called on the international community to put pressure on the Cuban government to respect the Nelson Mandela Rules and release political prisoners.
CSW’s director of advocacy, Anna Lee Stangl, said: “The systematic denial of the right to freedom of religion or belief in Cuba’s prisons sits within a wider context of serious human-rights violations and severe economic hardship across the island. CSW continues to call on the international community to press the Cuban government to release all political prisoners immediately and without condition, to ensure full respect for the Nelson Mandela Rules for all prisoners, and ultimately to enact comprehensive reforms to bring an end to the country’s myriad intersecting crises.”
