[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
CHALLENGES TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
IN THE AMERICAS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
__________
Serial No. 114-96
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
MATT SALMON, Arizona KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California
PAUL COOK, California ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas GRACE MENG, New York
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
RON DeSANTIS, Florida TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
TED S. YOHO, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
CURT CLAWSON, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin
DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York
TOM EMMER, MinnesotaUntil
DANIEL DONOVAN, New York
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
MATT SALMON, Arizona GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
TED S. YOHO, Florida ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
TOM EMMER, MinnesotaUntil
DANIEL DONOVAN, New York
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
Ms. Anna-Lee Stangl, senior advocacy office for the Americas,
Christian Solidarity Worldwide--UK............................. 5
Mr. Dennis P. Petri, research coordinator for Latin America,
associate director, World Watch Research, Open Doors
International.................................................. 11
Mr. Richard Coll, foreign policy advisor for Latin America and
Global Trade, Office of International Justice and Peace, United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops.......................... 26
Mr. Ricardo Luna, global vice president, Confraternidad
Evangelica Latina.............................................. 35
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Ms. Anna-Lee Stangl: Prepared statement.......................... 8
Mr. Dennis P. Petri: Prepared statement.......................... 13
Mr. Richard Coll: Prepared statement............................. 29
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 54
Hearing minutes.................................................. 55
Mr. Ricardo Luna: Prepared statement submitted after the hearing. 56
The Honorable Alan S. Lowenthal, a Representative in Congress
from the State of California: Prepared statement............... 79
The Honorable Jeff Duncan, a Representative in Congress from the
State of South Carolina, and chairman, Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere: Material submitted for the record.......... 81
CHALLENGES TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE AMERICAS
----------
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2 o'clock p.m.,
in room 2200 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jeff Duncan
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Duncan. We will go ahead and call the subcommittee
meeting to order. And we are waiting on one witness, which we
will go ahead and get started. We will be interrupted by
votes--2:20, 2:40--and we will have to recess at that point in
time but we will deal with it.
Before I read my opening statement, let me just take this
opportunity to let the folks in Chile know that we are thinking
about them and they are in our prayers with the earthquake and
tsunami flooding and other issues they have experienced this
year, but last night with the very strong earthquake that
happened off the coast and the resulting tsunami-type waves.
And I don't know that the Pacific Rim is out of the woods yet
with regard to tsunamis, so they will continue to be in our
thoughts and prayers.
So a quorum being present, the subcommittee will come to
order and I will now recognize myself for an opening statement.
Religious freedom was a major inspiration for the founding
of the early American republic, revered by our founding fathers
and recognized in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
as a fundamental right.
And I will pause and say that today is Constitution Day.
Happy Constitution Day. 1787, the Constitution was ratified
with the promise that the first ten amendments would be added
as the Bill of Rights, and so we recognize and celebrate that
today.
It has also been repeatedly recognized internationally. The
first U.S. President, George Washington, affirmed in his 1796
farewell address that ``of all the dispositions and habits
which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are
indispensable supports.'' This view enjoyed continued support
in the nineteenth century with a de Tocqueville writing that
``religion in America...must be regarded as the first of their
political institutions; for if it does not impart a taste for
freedom, it facilitates the use of it.''
Indeed, religious liberty provided the foundation for our
country's modern political order, respect for democracy, and
rule of law. Similarly, the ability to worship and exercise
one's faith without fear of attack, censure, bribery, or
government reprisal is one of the most important metrics of
freedom in any country.
Today, we meet to examine the state of religious freedom in
the Western Hemisphere, home to Catholic, Protestant, Jewish,
and Muslim faiths as well as a range of indigenous beliefs. In
particular, as Latin America contains nearly half of the
world's Catholics and the first Latin American Pope is set to
address Congress next week, I believe this hearing is timely in
bringing public awareness to the importance of international
freedom.
While religious minorities in Latin America and the
Caribbean do not experience the same level of persecution they
face elsewhere in the world, i.e., ISIS and the Middle East,
the state of religious freedom in our own hemisphere does
deserve our attention. Unfortunately, this year has seen a
noticeable uptick in violations of religious freedoms in
several countries in the region.
While most governments have constitutions with clauses that
protect religious freedom, the implementation of those
protections is often not rigorously enforced, and in certain
countries other laws or regulations have been written that make
religious worship and activities hard. For instance, in
countries such as Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and
Venezuela, it is government action itself that contributes
directly to difficulties in religious practice.
In other countries such as Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia,
the combination of criminal groups, lawless environment, or
impunity prevents the free exercise of religious worship and
activities. In particular, this subcommittee has heard multiple
reports of Catholic and Protestant churches being forced to pay
fines to criminal groups in the region in order to remain open,
church members have been threatened and internally displaced in
some cases, and pastors have faced extortion and assassination
attempts.
Significantly, churches that engage in outreach and
assistance to victims of human trafficking, drug and alcohol
addicts, or former members of criminal groups have found
themselves targets of criminal groups which see church efforts
as a threat to their own control, objectives, or activities.
Furthermore, many countries in Latin America require government
registration of churches, and in the cases of Bolivia and Peru
this registration can be cumbersome, intrusive, or just plain
difficult.
So I am deeply concerned about Bolivia's Law 351, passed in
2013, which forces all religious organizations to reapply for
legal standing while imposing burdensome preconditions that
appear restrictive to the rights of religious organizations.
Moreover, in Nicaragua reports surfaced in July 2013 that
President Ortega was exploiting religious symbols for political
gain and using financial pressure on Catholic and Protestant
groups to exert political influence.
Similarly, in Ecuador there have been reports of action by
the Ecuadoran Government to remove all religious images from
regional hospitals and obstruct the work of Catholic priests in
prisons.
Given the hearing that this subcommittee held in July on
threats to press freedoms in the Americas and President
Correa's actions last week to shut down Fundamedios, an
organization with a critical mission to provide information on
freedom of expression in Ecuador, I am troubled at what might
be next for religious organizations in Ecuador who dare to
diverge from Correa's views.
So in June 2014, I sent a letter to the Ambassador of
Mexico highlighting two cases of religious freedom violations
and requesting that Mexico prioritize accountability for
perpetrators who commit violent crimes under the guise of
religion. I would like to commend Mexico's actions in taking
steps to address some of these issues while acknowledging that
more work still remains.
Given the security environment in Mexico, the Catholic
Multimedia Center reported last December that Mexico is the
most dangerous country in the world to be a Catholic priest,
and 80 percent of cases involving attacks on priests in Mexico
are not resolved. Further, while Mexico's constitution
guarantees freedom of religion, an abuse of Mexico's law of
uses and customs has led to widespread cases of religious
intolerance which remain unaddressed today.
Furthermore, in Colombia, various NGOs are reporting an
increase in violence toward religious organizations by criminal
paramilitary groups given the internal armed conflict and
Colombia-FARC peace talks. Allegedly, this violence has
included poisoning, burning of houses and the closing of about
20 churches, torture, killings, and kidnapping of children for
use as child soldiers.
In contrast, in Cuba, the persecution of religious
organizations have been driven by the government. Although its
constitution guarantees freedom of religion, it has a caveat
that this can be restricted if it does not align with the
socialist objectives. Today, Cuban Government continues to
severely restrict religious liberty. Churches must be
registered in order to import religious material, meet in
houses authorized for worship, or travel abroad for religious
purposes. No Protestant religious schools are allowed and the
Jehovah's Witness' and Mormons have yet to receive recognition
by the government.
Last year, two pastors were arrested and detained by the
police, and early this year the government began enforcing
Legal Decree 322 to seize churches, church properties, and in
May, the property of Maranatha First Baptist Church was
confiscated. Cuban authorities also continue their brutality
against religious worshippers, often violently dragging out
women affiliated with the Ladies in White group from Sunday
morning services.
In conclusion, there are many disturbing reports of
religious freedom violations in our own hemisphere and this
does not bode well for the health of these countries for
religious freedom is utterly critical to the protection and
development of free societies. As historian Russell Kirk has
written, ``all the aspects of any civilization arise out of the
people's religion: Its politics, its economics, its arts, its
sciences, even its simple crafts are the by-product of
religious insights.'' Consequently, countries that respect
religious freedom allow all of these aspects of their cultures
to flourish while those that fail to protect religious freedom
will not see these benefits.
I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses today
on how they rate the Obama administration's priority of
religious freedom in the Western Hemisphere and how and what
the U.S. can engage with the countries in the region to support
religious freedom. So it should be a very lively hearing, and
again I apologize that we will be interrupted. But I will now
yield to the ranking member Mr. Sires from New Jersey for an
opening statement.
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to join
you in the words about Chile. It is very difficult to think in
living in a country that is constantly receiving earthquakes
and in such a little country and we certainly pray for the
people in that country. And I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman,
for convening this hearing and thank you to our witnesses for
being here today.
Today we are here to examine challenges to religious
freedom in the Americas. While the Western Hemisphere has long
enjoyed considerable freedom to practice religion compared to
other regions in the world, it is important to remain vigilant
and pay attention to troubling trends that may be on the
horizon. While leaders like Maduro, Castro, and Correa continue
to undermine democratic principles, we must do our part to
ensure our faith-based communities are able to live free from
persecution.
In Mexico, priests are under constant pressure and threat
from drug cartels trying to extort money from the church.
Additionally, there has been a concerning rise in violence
against Protestants and indigenous communities in Mexico. While
the culture of impunity in Mexico is strong, we must work to
ensure those targeted faith-based communities aim at doing good
in their neighborhoods.
And in Argentina there has been a track record of anti-
Semitism with the still unsolved 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos
Aires that killed 85 people. The Cuban regime does not spare
religious groups while exercising its total control over the
island. They actively monitor and limit religious practices
through government authorized surveillance and harassment.
And I would like to stop here for a minute, because what I
was looking at, Chairman, before, was a very disturbing video
that I received recently where the priest was chasing away from
the church a Ladies in White and called her a mercenary and
that she could not come into that church. To me, being a
Catholic, that is very disturbing. The church has a history of
being a sanctuary for people through its history and I cannot
understand why a priest would chase someone away from the
church. To me it is just very disturbing.
And I will finish my--when the Pope comes to visit the
Western Hemisphere this month, he plans to stop in Cuba before
heading to the United States. I hope he uses this as an
opportunity to implore the Castro brothers to loosen their grip
on the Cuban people who have long been oppressed for too many
years.
And I look forward to hearing from our panelists today as
they examine these and other religious freedom issues in the
region, and I thank you.
Mr. Duncan. I will thank the ranking member. And there is
no lighting system in here so I am going to do my best to try
to keep up with the time, but we give them 5 minutes. Their
biographies are in our folders. So Ms. Stangl testified earlier
this year. Welcome back to the subcommittee and you are
recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MS. ANNA-LEE STANGL, SENIOR ADVOCACY OFFICE FOR
THE AMERICAS, CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE--UK
Ms. Stangl. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and I thank
you for holding this hearing which I think might be the first
time a hearing like this has been held.
A number of Latin American countries including Mexico and
Peru have problematic legal requirements for the registration
of religious groups. In 2013, Bolivia also adopted legislation
requiring registration but which was expanded to exert control
over not just religious groups but all nongovernmental
organizations. The law was supposed to enter into force last
month, but is not under review by the Constitutional Tribunal
and it forces all religious organizations to re-register.
Of most concern to religious leaders, however, is a clause
in the new law which states that religious groups must operate
within the parameters of ``vivir bien,'' a political ideology
incorporating elements of indigenous spiritual beliefs and
promoting, and this is a quote, ``alternatives to capitalism,
to modernity, and to development.'' This clearly poses a
problem for many religious organizations whose belief systems
do not align with a particular ideology.
Problematic anti-cult legislation has also cropped up in
Bolivia's southern neighbor Argentina. CSW has regularly
expressed concern about the adoption of anti-cult legislation
which can be used to limit religious freedom. Such legislation
often goes beyond targeting criminal actions to criminalizing a
system of belief and noncriminal acts of worship. In 2013, the
law was used unsuccessfully to target the Pueblo Grande Baptist
Church in Rio Tercero.
While the laws in many Latin American countries present a
potential threat to religious freedom, a state of lawlessness
in many countries presents an even more urgent threat. More
Catholic priests were killed in Mexico in 2014 than in any
other country in the world. According to the Catholic
Multimedia Center, which has been documenting attacks on
Catholic church leaders since 2000, criminal groups tend to see
priests and lay leaders as promoting a way of life that goes
contrary to the objectives of the criminal groups in their
preaching and ministry.
Although not as well documented, the situation for
Protestant leaders is similar. In some cases the criminal
groups have prohibited evangelistic work, demanded the active
cooperation of church leaders or attempted to use the church as
a front for money laundering or a target for extortion.
Uniquely to Mexico, some criminal groups have incorporated
a religious element into their ideology--the cult of Santa
Muerte, for example--and attempted to force church leaders to
endorse these beliefs through word or actions. Church leaders
who refuse to comply with these demands are met with serious
repercussions. Mexico is one example of where widespread
criminal violence has had a chilling effect on religious
freedom, but similar situations can be found Colombia, El
Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Argentina.
I now want to turn to unique religious freedom situations
in three countries which CSW consider to be a priority for
religious freedom advocate in the region. Returning to Mexico,
criminal violence is not the only source of religious freedom
violation. Religious intolerance in some states manifested by
local leaders attempting to force all inhabitants to adhere to
the majority religion results in widespread and egregious
violations of religious freedom. If the government does not
intervene, as it rarely does, these situations often escalate
to violence, including arbitrary detention, physical assault
and expropriation or destruction of property, and end in mass
expulsion and forced displacement.
Moving now to Colombia. The internal conflict in this
country which has gone on now for more than a half century has
also had a direct impact on religious freedom. I have already
mentioned criminal violence perpetuated in Colombia by neo-
paramilitary groups, one of which, the Black Eagles, issued
public death threats to civil society leaders including five
named Protestant leaders in the Atlantic Coast region earlier
this year. The group also named all Protestant churches in the
cities of Barranquilla and Sincelejo as military targets.
On the other side of the conflict, leftist guerillas, the
FARC and the ELN, have historically severely restricted
religious freedom in areas under their influence or control. In
some cases they have prohibited all Christian activity and
persecuted, even killed, Christian leaders who defied these
orders. In other cases, while not prohibiting Christian
activity across the board, they have imposed severe
restrictions.
In Colombia, state actors have also been accused of
violations of religious freedom. Despite numerous rulings by
the Constitutional Court that the right to conscientious
objection on religious grounds to obligatory military service
is protected by the constitution, military forces have not
respected this right and have forcibly inducted young men who
hold strong religious beliefs that prohibit them from taking up
arms.
I conclude now with Cuba where religious organizations and
their activities come under the authority of the Office of
Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Cuban
Communist Party. Religious groups must seek permission from
this office for things ranging from the right to own a vehicle
to something as simple as expanding a bathroom or repairing a
roof. The office, in turn, uses the granting or withholding of
these permits to manipulate religious groups.
Church leaders of legally recognized denominations report
harassment, discrimination and threats from government
officials as a daily part of their ministry. Religious groups
that do not have legal recognition are severely persecuted and
threatened with confiscation or destruction of their property.
Over the past 5 years, CSW has documented a continuous and
sharp rise in religious freedom violations in Cuba. Much of
this is rooted in the decades-long government policy of
attempting to separate Cubans linked to human rights groups and
pro-democracy movements from bodies of faith.
In recent years more and more church leaders have defied
this policy and welcome all Cubans regardless of their
political beliefs into their churches. This has become a
flashpoint for religious freedom violations, perhaps most
obviously manifested in the violent arbitrary detention each
weekend of women linked to the Ladies in White movement in
order to prevent them from attending Sunday Mass.
The general global perception that Latin America is a
Christian region of the world with strong Western values has
often led to violations of religious freedom, many of them
serious, being overlooked. Well thought out policies by the
United States to promote freedom of religion or belief in the
region carried out in consultation and cooperation with civil
society on the ground could have real potential to make a
change. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Stangl follows:]
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Mr. Duncan. Thank you. Mr. Petri, you are recognized for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF MR. DENNIS P. PETRI, RESEARCH COORDINATOR FOR
LATIN AMERICA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, WORLD WATCH RESEARCH, OPEN
DOORS INTERNATIONAL
Mr. Petri. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will summarize my
written testimony. The majority of all Latin American citizens
is formally Christian, but actively practicing Christians, that
is Christians who regularly attend church, are a minority, and
this minority is specifically vulnerable to suffering human
rights abuses. As far as the legal framework is concerned, it
can be concluded that there are no major obstacles to religious
freedom in the vast majority of Latin American countries, with
the exception of Cuba. But from the perspective of human
security, the enforcement of religious freedom poses
challenges.
Religious freedom in Latin America is restricted by three
dynamics. The first is organized crime. The main feature of
organized crime is the creation of a climate of impunity,
anarchy and corruption, in which actively practicing Christians
are vulnerable because their behavior, which is based on the
biblical world view, is contrary to the greed of organized
crime. Of course, organized crime affects societies as a whole,
and not only Christians. But actively participating Christians
possess a specific vulnerability for suffering human rights
abuses.
The targeting of Christians by criminal organizations is
generally motivated by a combination of two elements. Firstly,
people involved in organized crime view Christians who openly
oppose their activities as a threat, especially when Christians
get involved in social programs or in politics.
Secondly, criminal organizations know that the Christian
faith is not compatible with their ideals. They fear Christians
will influence members of the community or even members of
their own organizations to oppose activities. All denominations
of Christianity can become victims of organized crime, though
it affects mostly the more outspoken Christians who fulfill
leadership positions. Let me mention a few examples on Mexico.
In many states of Mexico violence is pervasive but affects
actively practicing Christians to a high degree. Churches and
other Christian institutions are often seen as revenue centers
by drug cartels. The extortion of priests, pastors, but also
Christian business owners is commonplace. Attending church
services increases the threat of kidnapping and youths are
particularly at risk of being recruited into gangs.
Social initiatives are also faced with major threats,
especially initiatives that enter the area of influence of
criminal organizations. Drug rehabilitation or youth work are a
direct threat to the market and influence of drug cartels and
therefore increase the vulnerability of Christians engaging in
these programs. From personal research on the ground I can
confirm that there is widespread and sophisticated surveillance
and monitoring by members of drug cartels within churches.
And now turning to Colombia. In many parts of Colombia,
similarly to Mexico, organized crime is responsible for
demonstrable threats to certain forms of religious behavior.
The second dynamic that restricts religious freedom in the
Americas is the presence of hostilities against conversion to
Christianity in indigenous areas, especially in Mexico and
Colombia. Converts to Christianity are regularly threatened,
excluded from access to basic social services, beaten and
displaced by tribal leaders, and they are not given sufficient
protection by their government.
The third dynamic that restricts religious freedom in the
Americas is communism. In Cuba, pressure on Christians
continues in the form of harassment, strict surveillance and
discrimination including the occasional imprisonment of
Christian leaders. Religious practice is monitored and all
church services are infiltrated by spies.
In Venezuela, the pressure on Christians is subtle, but any
organization which is influential is restricted by the
government. For years, the Venezuelan administration has
attempted to shut down private Catholic education in favor of
public schools. And in Bolivia, through administrative and
bureaucratic obstacles, Christians are also restricted in their
freedom to exercise their right to worship.
Your excellencies, I recommend the following. First, I
recommend that the specific vulnerability of actively
practicing Christians is taken into consideration in U.S.
foreign policy and by the U.S. Congress in performing its
oversight function. The U.S. Government should make the
reduction of risks for Christians caused by organized crime an
integral part of its foreign policy.
Second, special attention should be given to ratio of
structural violence, impunity, and corruption as Mexico and
other Latin American states are not always diligent enough in
terms of investigating issues related to violations of freedom
of religion and expression. Third, the U.S. Government should
urge the Colombian Government to include religious freedom in
their agenda for ongoing peace talks with the FARC guerillas.
Fourth, the U.S. Government must put pressure on the
Colombian Government to counter the abuses in the realm of
religious freedom of the constitutional provision that grants
autonomy to indigenous territories. Fifth, I also recommend
that advantage should be taken of the recent developments in
diplomatic relations with Cuba to specifically address the
religious freedom situation in that country.
Sixth, finally, the U.S. Government should work together
with Latin American states to create a system in which churches
and Christian leaders who are victims of extortion feel safe to
denounce the threats against them.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Petri follows:]
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----------
Mr. Duncan. Thank you, Mr. Petri.
Mr. Coll, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF MR. RICHARD COLL, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR FOR LATIN
AMERICA AND GLOBAL TRADE, OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND
PEACE, UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS
Mr. Coll. Thank you, Congressman. My name is Richard Coll,
Foreign Policy Advisor, Latin America and Global Trade for the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I would like to
thank the Honorable Representative Jeff Duncan, chairman of the
subcommittee, and the Honorable Representative Albio Sires,
ranking member, for the opportunity to testify today on
challenges to religious freedom.
I will be summarizing my written statement submitted for
the record of this hearing, and I respectfully request that my
statement be added to the record.
The bishops of the United States are deeply disturbed by
the terrible human consequences of violence in Latin America
and the effects of violence on religious freedom and human
rights in the region. Many Catholic bishops, priests, religious
and lay workers have been the victims over the years of
assassinations, violence, death threats, and hostility often
directed at them as a consequence of their work as pastors and
defenders of the rights of their people.
The gospel and Catholic social teaching call us to defend
poor and marginalized communities and to oppose the persecution
that results from a criminal response to this ministry.
Catholic social teaching has consistently called for democracy,
human rights and robust civil society institutions. In
promoting these noble objectives many church leaders and
workers have paid a grievous price.
Catholic social teaching is founded on the sanctity of the
life and dignity of all persons. All are created in the image
and likeness of God. The state and its political structures
exist to serve the human person and in particular to foster the
common good. All human persons have rights that are of divine
origin. It is as a result of these core religious beliefs when
acting in solidarity to support the legitimate claims to life
and dignity of all peoples in Latin America that many church
leaders and workers have become the targets of violence. Let me
give you examples.
In Latin America the exercise of religious freedom has been
challenged by state and society throughout the region. In some
countries as has already been noted, such as Cuba and
Venezuela, the free exercise of religion has been suppressed
with religious believers imprisoned and persecuted for their
beliefs. In other countries religious freedom is given wider
respect but continues to be challenged by political leaders and
groups who seek to drive religious believers or actors out of
public life or to limit the role of religious belief and public
debate. These include restrictions on participation of
religious groups in political discussions, and it includes laws
which fail to extend conscience and religious exemptions to
individuals. A great example is the case of Article 130 of the
Mexican Constitution which prohibits religious organizations
from challenging or criticizing the laws of the state.
In many countries in Latin America the challenges to the
church and to organized religion, as also has been noted, come
not only from the government but from the operation of
criminal, guerilla, and paramilitary actors engaged in violence
against their fellow citizens. In defending the right to life
and dignity of its innocent and tormented people, the Church's
bishops, priests, and religious lay workers have often become
the victims of retaliatory violence at the hand of these
criminal groups.
According to a report by Fides, the international service
of the Pontifical Mission Societies, 22 pastors and care
workers--19 priests, one religious sister, and two lay
persons--were killed worldwide in 2013, almost double the
number killed the year before. For the fifth consecutive year,
Latin America had the highest number of such deaths in 2013. In
the Americas, 15 priests were killed--seven in Colombia, four
in Mexico, one each in Brazil, Venezuela, Panama and Haiti. By
2014, the number of priests killed in Mexico increased to nine,
making that country as has been noted the most dangerous nation
in the world to be a Catholic priest.
In solidarity visits to Cuba and Venezuela as well as to
Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico,
USCCB delegations have witnessed firsthand the remarkable
spirituality and courageous actions of many church leaders,
priests, religious and lay workers. In Peru, this threat of
violence has extended to Archbishop Pedro Barreto in connection
with his work defending the poor from the violence caused by
unregulated mining operations in his archdiocese.
Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini of Guatemala likewise has received
numerous threats on his life for his work in support of
indigenous communities. Bishop Raul Vera of Mexico has
courageously identified the criminal elements, be they
narcotics traffickers, gang members, or local government
officials that murdered innocent Mexican citizens in numerous
slayings.
In Honduras, a large number of priests and religious spoke
to us about the violence they had witnessed or experienced
personally as a result of defending the rights of local
communities to protest against dangerous mining operations.
Comparable threats have been received concerning religious
leaders and workers in the Central American region who have
spoken in support of their afflicted people.
In this way these brave individuals mirror the profound and
powerful example of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was recently
beatified in a moving ceremony in El Salvador. He gave his life
in 1980 defending the rights of the Salvadoran people to peace,
freedom and dignity, and many church leaders and followers have
followed in his footsteps.
To quote from a letter from Bishop Richard Pates to
Secretary of State John Kerry, ``My brother bishops in Central
America have urged us to encourage alternatives to the
militarization of U.S. assistance and to instead emphasize
economic opportunity. The United States must recognize our own
contributions to the crisis which exists in the region, and
support more effective programs that reduce drug usage here at
home. The regulation of gun exports, coupled with criminal
justice reforms that foster rehabilitation rather than
retribution, need to implemented by our states and our Federal
Government.''
Congressmen, your roles as representatives of this great
nation brings great responsibilities. The decision to support
justice for the peoples of Latin America is of crucial
importance to these efforts at addressing the root causes of
this crisis. All must act in a way that respects the dignity of
all human persons and enables the proper participation of all
Latin American citizens reducing conflict and division. As
members of this esteemed Congress you can play a vital and
lifesaving role in solidarity with the Catholic Church and the
people of this region. This can be accomplished by effectuating
budgetary decisions that support peaceful development, economic
growth and the rule of law, and by addressing the grave
problems of human, narcotics and weapons trafficking over our
borders.
Thank you for providing crucial moral leadership to assist
the people of Latin America in creating viable and prosperous
societies. In this way, human rights and the strengthening of
robust civil societies will be secured, which will lead to more
just and equitable development reflecting the common patrimony
of all God's children. The USCCB stands ready to work with you
and with the Church in Latin America in bringing such hopeful
prospects to a fruitful resolution. Thank you again.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Coll follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Duncan. I want to thank the witnesses. They have just
called votes so we are going to recess, probably for about 30
minutes. There are three votes, and we will come back.
Hopefully Mr. Luna will be here. We will take his testimony and
then we will get into the question session of this. So if you
will bear with us, we will stand in recess.
[Recess.]
Mr. Duncan. Okay, we will reconvene the hearing. I
appreciate you all's patience and we will recognize Mr. Luna
for an opening statement for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MR. RICARDO LUNA, GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT,
CONFRATERNIDAD EVANGELICA LATINA
Mr. Luna. Thank you, sir. I value what you are doing here.
The fact that you are focusing on religious liberty in Latin
America is very important for Latin America and for religious
liberty as well as what Rabbi David Epstein does in Latin
America and all over the world in his role as ambassador. And I
think--I have been involved with the State Department, their
report on religious rights, human rights, and these three offer
a great service to the continent, so thank you.
I briefly want to share on behalf of CONEL. CONEL is
Spanish for Confraternidad Evangelica Latina, Latin World
Evangelical Alliance. We used to be Latin American, called
CONELA, Latin America, but Latin identity is now global. To get
what this means is that in the United States if you have heard
of NHCLC, Samuel Rodriguez, they are CONEL in the United
States, U.S. Hispanics, about 40,000 churches represented.
We serve a community of approximately 500,000 churches in
Latin America. Those we have certified. We, actually, as of
2010, we think the number is actually closer to 700,000, but we
say 500,000 certified, the missional community we serve. Our
board members for our unity are the regional leaders
representing approximately 80 percent of the churches in Latin
America, a local church anywhere from 20 and 30 members to
large churches of a thousand to 2,000. Various countries have
churches of 7,000 to 100,000. Yes, one local church that meets
in homes and then in the stadium on the weekend.
So this is the church in Latin America where 21 nations, 15
island nations, in addition, about 500 million people, so the
issue of religious liberty is very important. And I think I am
more connected to the local church in terms of especially the
evangelical church, but also in our relations with our Catholic
brothers and others whom we meet both at a regional or at a
local level.
There is just three very small things that I want to point
out in this opportunity to be here. One is the situation of
religious liberty du jour, de facto, and policy opportunities.
Du jour, I think our colleagues have spoken well to that. There
is a lot of documentation including your own staff, I am
assuming.
Du jour, most countries in Latin America have adopted the
U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 is part of
everybody's agenda and so it is present. And if the world could
be safe for religious liberty because we have constitution and
laws, then we would not even need to have a hearing about what
issues and challenges we face, but obviously it is not.
You have heard from our colleagues, I think, about Mexico.
To give you one idea, in Mexico, every time there is an
expulsion in San Juan Chamula or anywhere in the Mexican state
18 laws are broken. Every time there is one expulsion. This is
from a human rights lawyer that has been working there for
decades. So 30,000 people in one community, over 90,000 people
have been evicted and that is 180,000 laws broken.
So sometimes it is not the fact that we have laws, it is
the enforcement of laws that is the great challenge, so that is
why I would like to focus on de facto. De facto is the reality
on the ground. In this reality on the ground I have personally
been involved in, in the last 35 years. Being involved on the
ground, I have been in Cuba where I have been kicked out for
being part of the CIA, because everything that is not
controlled by the state becomes that.
Nevertheless, I acknowledge these are changing times. There
is improvements in many areas, but in Colombia that means being
involved in conflict areas at a very local level, getting to
know the actors through the Colombian Peace Talks, as my friend
Ms. Stangl here, with left-wing guerrillas, the right-wing
paramilitaries and finding out again from the base communities.
Everywhere I have been there is a local church of these 500,000
churches. The du jour situation is one, but the de facto, what
does it look like on the ground is important.
And it is important to highlight the two types of
oppositions that we have had historically and currently. One is
revolutionary extremists. They are not only in the Middle East.
In Latin America we have been dealing with them for over 50
years, 60 years and more depending on the country. And
revolution extremists put the Church in the middle of conflict
and the Church is caught in a crossfire we say.
And as the Church is caught in a crossfire, as you have
heard we have expulsions, we have deaths, we have 1.5 million
refugees in a place like Colombia. We have 120 Catholic
priests, over 250 evangelical pastors killed because they are
caught in a crossfire. Because in a situation like conflict
people say you are either with me or against me, and some
people to revolutionaries of the left and other counter
revolutionaries, if you will, of the right, they both put the
Church in that position.
And in this setting it has been wonderful to be able to
document with the State Department cases. We have had histories
of cases documented yearly that put this, as we say what
happens to one in a local place in the middle of nowhere
happens to all of us, and I think it is very beneficial. Du
jour and de facto, two realities.
But I want to affirm, and as I was looking over the goals
you have for this committee, in two very brief recommendations.
The first recommendation of where religious liberty is going
needs to have one more word added to the ``religious'' which is
religious ``equality.'' In Latin America, the values that we
have as Latins--God, family--places many of our communities,
like the ones represented here from our Catholic Church, from
human rights NGOs, and on this side and that, places us
together to focus on two areas of religious equality.
One, I think that we would focus on religious equality
where we can express our religious liberty that we have our
values. For instance, what that means specifically is that in
areas of same-sex marriage, in areas of abortion, evangelicals,
Catholics, NGOs, and Latin culture in general has declared
itself very publicly. There is a study of 12 nations in Latin
America, 45 globally, attitudes and behaviors of youth where 82
percent of the youth in Latin America declared themselves to be
part of what can be called traditional, by other definition
biblical, family.
So religious equality issues tied to religious liberty, we
need to be able to express this. Because there is now U.N.
policy, sometimes U.S. policy that tells us we have to accept
the United States' or United Nations' view of this versus our
own. So this issue of religious liberty and religious equality
there is a great concern and a generational concern that we are
able to express this and be respected in our religious liberty
to believe and to organize ourselves as such.
We believe it is very important with our Catholic brothers
to stand, I think, with great respect for the law, great
respect for people in democracy to each require their own
actions, understanding that, but we want to express these
values. I think the issue of religious equality is an issue
also of what governments will do with the growing evangelical
church. In 1900, 1 percent of Latin America was evangelical.
Today, depending on the country, 5 percent lowest to 50
percent, maybe 15 percent as you look as an average in Latin
America.
So what do you do when as a state--this is a question for
state, it is not a question of a church to church, of the
state--what do you do when the official Church has, receives
grants for education, receives million-dollar grants to exist
as an organization, has the opportunity to import, has the
opportunity to be legal, to be tax exempt, and the growing
evangelical churches don't?
This really brings up the issue, which is very important
for the 500,000 churches in Latin America, of religious
equality. What does religious equality look like? There is a
great example in the case of Chile. Chile is the only country
that has passed a religious equality law. To do so, evangelical
leaders that wanted to find solutions, not blame, Catholic
leaders, as a matter of fact the two top lawyers were a
Catholic lawyer and an evangelical lawyer, got together to look
at it as a state issue of how to make religious liberty and
religious equality, what does it need to look like in the
twenty-first century.
And in the case of Chile they passed the only religious
equality law in Latin America. This means that evangelicals
have access to the chaplaincy in prisons as well as in the
military. It means they could exist legally in the same way.
And this question is not only for the evangelical church but
for all minority religions. The changing face requires.
And if there is one recommendation that I would love the
committee to consider is, how do we do that and how do we do
that in brotherhood and how can we partner for that? And toward
that end count on us, CONEL, as a group that would very much
like to be part of a solution of anybody working this issue.
The other issue, very briefly, we focus on children.
Children are at the forefront of expressing or of living every
problem that has to do with sexual trafficking, every problem
that has to do with gangs--82,000 just in two countries of
Latin America, 82,000 gang members. In El Salvador, 17,000 gang
members stopped the functioning of the country for 1 day. So
when children are victims of these gang members, where narco-
trafficking which went beyond Colombia and the Andean countries
and northern Mexico as we all know, and the children become
what they call the ``mules,'' the messengers and the
transporters, the children are placed in a very precarious
situation.
This very precarious situation has actually caused Latin
America to live an immigration crisis in every country through
refugees, 1.5 million, two million, a hundred thousand,
different countries. And as we live these situations, we are
looking, can we agree on the rights of children? And with this
I finish, what is the recommendation.
I have a meeting next month in Chiapas, Mexico where three
Central American Presidents, where people involved in refugee
and children-at-risk, children as victims of sexual
trafficking, 57 million that have to work as children, we are
coming to, we want to adopt principles that would allow us to
recommend, to promote, to work for in every country. I will
just read to you what they are and then I will finish with
that.
Principles toward children, this is my wrap-up, four
points. One, principles that respect the God-given dignity of
every person, protects the unity of the immediate family,
respects, and especially the children, respects the rule of law
and guarantees secure national borders. Our idea is that we
want to ask Latin countries to respect these four issues, and
insofar as religious liberty and human rights focus on children
and the church's response to them. If there is a way that
through the work of your committee and of the United States
Government we could find a common place to do that, that would
be very welcome. Thank you so much for your time.
[Mr. Luna did not submit a prepared statement until after
the hearing. It has been inserted into the appendix.]
Mr. Duncan. I want to thank the panelists for their opening
statements. We will now move into the question portion of the
hearing. Mr. Luna, I will start with you. And in your opinion,
where other than the United States, and we can have an argument
about religious liberty in the United States which I think we
ought to talk about as well, but where can one go to feel like
they can worship freely in the Western Hemisphere? What
countries lead in the realm of religious freedom? We know the
bad actors, right, so we talk about Cuba and we can talk about
Nicaragua. What are some of the good actors?
Mr. Luna. Chile is very strong. As I say, if there is a
leader both du jour, de facto in the Latin continent it is
Chile.
Mr. Duncan. For all religions or just more Catholicism or--
--
Mr. Luna. For all religions. There is a movement among
evangelical leaders to not think of, of course to represent our
communities which are evangelical, but to look at the issue of
religious liberty and equality as for all religions. And we
form part of committees at a national level that are of all the
different religions so that the same law could apply to the
religions.
Mr. Duncan. So Chile is one, who is another?
Mr. Luna. Chile is one. All the other ones I would say we
have challenges in, which is why we need to----
Mr. Duncan. Paraguay, Uruguay, any Caribbean country?
Suriname, Guyana, any of that? Brazil? I am asking, I don't
know.
Mr. Luna. Yes, Brazil has had a strong tradition of
religious respect. I think all countries have two realities.
One where they are models and they are living models,
especially in the cities and in certain sectors, but they also
have the challenge, which is why I think we need to focus on
religious liberty and equality for the new challenges.
Mr. Duncan. Let me ask other panelists if you will chime
in. Who do you see as the good actors?
Ms. Stangl. I do think actually Brazil that you mentioned
is one of the leading lights in the region. There has just been
an effort to submit for consideration a new bill on religious
freedom in Brazil. They already had a very good framework, but
they wanted to make sure it was the best it could be and they
want it to be a model for the rest of Latin America.
There is something of a battle in some of the countries of
militant secularism, and as Mr. Luna and as Mr. Coll said, kind
of banishing, trying to banish religious speech from the public
sphere. You do see that to an extent in Brazil, but I would say
as far as worship on a Sunday morning or Friday at mosque or
Saturday at the synagogue, Brazil is probably one of the
leaders as well as Chile.
Mr. Duncan. All right, Mr. Petri?
Mr. Petri. Well, I think as I said, as far as national
legislation is concerned there is really not that much wrong
with Latin American countries. And, really, in my testimony
what I tried to convey is that we should broaden the scope of
religious freedom. Not only look at it from the legal
perspective, and again I don't think there are that many
problems in Latin America. Of course the good students really
are Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, which is the country that is my
home, but I think from a legal perspective there is not that
much that is wrong.
But from the human security perspective there is a lot more
that is going on, and that is something that is very often is--
--
Mr. Duncan. Let me get Mr. Coll on the record.
Mr. Petri. Sure.
Mr. Coll. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I would just like to
follow up on Mr. Petri's very wise observation that I would
like to offer up the church in Colombia and Colombia generally
as being an example of how religious freedom operates in a way
that vindicates the rights of the common people. The church in
Colombia particularly under the leadership of Cardinal Salazar
has as you know been very instrumental in helping to negotiate
a settlement with the FARC, and through its Pastoral Social has
also been very active in trying to develop a form of social
services and social outreach to impoverished people. We were in
Bogota just a year or so ago and it is really wonderful to see
the work that happens there. I would offer up Colombia as a
great example of how effective religious freedom can affect the
facts and the root causes on the ground.
Mr. Duncan. Well, I thank you all for that. Violence has
been talked about a lot. I think the ranking member mentioned
and probably will mention again the video of someone being
pulled out of a church, a White Lady being pulled out of the
church--Ladies in White, rather--by a priest. Violence, how it
leads to persecution.
I guess I am asking, is this more a government sponsored
violence? We heard about gang violence and the cartel and other
things, but do you see, what is the balance there between a
criminal element violence and government sponsored violence
across the region? I would just focus in on Cuba, but across
the region is it more government sponsored? Is it more criminal
elements? Ms. Stangl?
Ms. Stangl. I think it is a very complex mix. I think in
most countries it would be criminal groups, however with
exceptions in Cuba and in Mexico. And Cuba you see kind of
government paramilitary groups that come in in plainclothes
pretending to be civilians who also attack the Ladies in White
in trying to prevent them attending Mass. And that is
definitely, although they are not wearing government uniforms,
a government orchestrated campaign of violence.
In Mexico, on the very local level in certain regions,
there is a campaign of violence carried out by local officials.
They are not top government officials but local, maybe a mayor,
the local town council. And that is often met with impunity
which gives the impression that the higher-up government either
doesn't care enough or endorses that kind of violence. But in
the other countries it would be much more criminal, non-
government actors.
Mr. Duncan. What--again, this, really not what I want to
ask. Let's ask this. Have you seen evidence of the State
Department or local embassy officials engaging with governments
in the region on these issues to encourage governments to
revise their regulations or their laws of making church
registration more difficult or for religious groups?
So we have got governments that are requiring churches to
register, we talked about that in your statements and mine. Do
you see the U.S. engaging those governments in saying, look,
church registration is counterproductive to religious freedom?
How do you see our State Department acting on this? Mr. Petri,
you look like you want to answer.
Mr. Petri. I think the Obama administration has really not
paid that much attention to religious freedom apart from the
annual publications.
Mr. Duncan. Well, they haven't paid much attention to this
region in general, but----
Mr. Petri. Yes, of course. But apart from the annual
publication of the International Religious Freedom report,
there is just not that much that has happened in the field of
religious freedom in the Americas.
And I also think that is an important point I want to make.
I think as was said earlier, the full scope of religious
freedom is not taken into account by the International
Religious Freedom report of the State Department, because what
you see in Latin America--and I think Cuba is really an
exception because their persecution is mostly state sponsored.
But if you look at the other countries, persecution is not
based that much on religious identity or on church attendance
but more on behavior, so it is your religious convictions that
make you vulnerable to suffer human rights abuses. But identity
as such, just the fact that you own a Bible or that you go to
church, is not enough to be persecuted. That is not the
dynamic. That is why religious freedom violations are often
misunderstood in Latin America.
And that is really what I want you to take away from this,
that that is actually one very important I mentioned and that
is very present in Latin America and it should be taken into
account.
Mr. Duncan. All right, my time is up. I am going to yield
to the ranking member, and we will come around for the second
round of questions.
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We usually have people
from the State Department here, and I am one of those
individuals that think that democracy is in trouble in Central
and South America. I think we are going the other way.
I was just wondering if suppression of religion goes along
with that, that we are going the wrong way in all of these
countries.
Mr. Luna. One of the things--oh, excuse me----
Mr. Sires. Go ahead.
Mr. Luna [continuing]. Mr. Sires, is that it is more
sophisticated now. At one point, see, in Cuba it was very
clear, atheism, and religion is--in today's world it is a fine
for something you are doing. It is a church in Caracas,
Venezuela, a very prominent church was going to be taken over
because they didn't fulfill certain local ordinances. So I
think now because of human rights people are very careful not
to say I am going after you because of religion.
But what is behind there is that like in these types of
attacks that are--it is through mobs which are done by the
government. The situation in Cuba is, I would say, has some
parallels in Venezuela, for instance, in this respect.
So there is definitely an opposition to church, but it is
more sophisticated, and how to do that. And I think we can
report this. In my contact with local embassies and placing it
in the national report has been very key, but as far as how to
promote something different I have not seen evidence of that.
Mr. Sires. Mr. Coll, do you see it go as the wrong way?
Mr. Coll. Well, I think that in some countries there are
certainly increased challenges, and I think those challenges as
we have heard already this afternoon come from two different
angles. One is the governmental policy that can challenge,
whether it is in the case of the Cuba or in the case of a
Mexico where there has been historically over hundreds of years
efforts at secularization and where, frankly, the Catholic
Church has been under extreme duress--the Cristero Wars in the
1920s--the victim of a great amount of violence in Mexico.
I also think that as we also heard, in many countries--
Colombia, Peru, other parts of Latin America, certainly in
Central America--the challenges come from the issues of
poverty, narcotics trafficking, arms trafficking, political
violence, gang warfare, and to address those we won't be able
to address them through legislative solutions or even political
solutions. Rather, we need solid economic and developmental
causes to be addressed.
In that regard, for instance, I had an opportunity to meet
with Cardinal Salazar, whom I mentioned, who was such a
supporter of the FARC negotiations. And I asked him, how can we
as a church in the United States support you in Colombia in
reaching a peaceful resolution of these issues? And he said,
you can cut down on the drug demand from the United States
because your insatiable demand for drugs from the United States
is killing our people.
And then I would just finally add that we as a conference
have been a long supporter of the Frank Wolf International
Religious Freedom Act of 2015. We believe that enactment of
that bill would be very helpful in terms of enhancing political
diplomacy in the preservation of religious freedom and in
vindicating greater education for State Department officials to
recognize the importance of religious freedom.
Mr. Petri. Yes. Well, Mr. Sires, I think I agree with you
that there are challenges to democracies in Latin America. I
think Latin America, the democratization----
Mr. Sires. Go hand in hand.
Mr. Petri. Of course. The democratization 30 years ago that
started in Latin America led to electoral democracies, but
quality of democracy there is still a lot of work to be done
especially in the field of service delivery in all social
aspects. And one of those elements is of course religious
freedom, the protection and enforcement of religious freedom.
So it is all very nice on paper, but the enforcement of
religious rights is a major challenge, and together with that
the corruption infiltration of security and justice systems is
also a big issue in some of the countries in Latin America. So
yes, I agree with you that they both need to go hand in hand.
Mr. Sires. Ms. Stangl?
Ms. Stangl. Yes, to your question on Central America if we
are going backwards, I was in El Salvador last weekend at a
conference on violence in Latin America and how it is affecting
religious freedom. And what we have seen in El Salvador and the
countries surrounding it is that the levels of violence and the
government response in some cases is so extreme that the
impotence of society is also very bad.
One very prominent denominational leader, Pastor Mario
Vega, earlier this year was named on a web page supposedly run
by kind of government death squads, named and threatened
because of his speaking out about some of these policies and
defending the churches. He said to me, in a country like El
Salvador we have such high levels of criminal gangs and
activities it is impossible as a pastor or a priest not to have
some contact with them.
At children's events 90 percent of the children are
children of gang members, and so you are living every day in
your ministry with that dynamic. At the same time illicit
association is now considered a crime by the government. And so
a pastor who is trying to work with these communities trying to
transform these communities, or a priest, can also be in danger
unfortunately from the government side of being of accused of
illicit association. So it is definitely going backwards in
that sense.
Mr. Sires. Thank you.
Mr. Duncan. I thank the gentleman, and now the Chair will
go to Mr. Donovan.
Mr. Donovan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is there any
particular place in Latin America or in the Western Hemisphere
where it is more egregious, the interference of religious
freedom, is there any one area where it is more egregious than
the others? To anyone, if you are aware of.
Ms. Stangl. For CSW there are different types of religious
freedom violations, but our three priority countries and the
countries we consider to be the worst at the moment are Cuba,
Mexico and Colombia.
Mr. Petri. Yes, for Open Doors those are the same three
priority countries as well. And there is many offense that are
occurring at the same time in different countries and to
different extent, but those two countries are the highest
priority as far as religious freedom is concerned.
Mr. Donovan. Well, when you think about Cuba, where the
administration has just resumed relationship with Cuba without
any demands on improvements of human rights in Cuban
Government, have we seen any places where there has been
improvement at all?
Ms. Stangl. You are correct in Cuba. We have seen zero
improvements in religious freedom since these negotiations
began, unfortunately. As far as improvements in other
countries, we have seen some improvements in Colombia as a
result, I think, of the peace talks and some government efforts
there. And there are positive noises coming from Mexico very
much due, I think, to pressure from the chairman of this
committee and other Members of Congress who have raised this
issue consistently and strongly with the Mexican Government.
Mr. Petri. There are improvements, but at the same time
there are also deteriorations on different fields at the same
time. So I think, as also mentioned, I think we should really,
or you should take advantage of the dialogue that is now
starting with Cuba to really address religious freedom in that
country.
And some things, and just looking at Mexico or Colombia
some things have improved, especially relationship between
churches are much better than any of the past legislation has
improved, but then organized crime is really putting, as I
said, actively practicing Christians under threat in these
countries more and more. So as things go better other things go
worse.
Mr. Donovan. Well, my understanding from one of the
witness's testimony that some of it is governmental intolerance
of religious freedom and some of it is guerilla intolerance
that is, I don't know if it is supported by government or
ignored by governments. Besides the hearings that we have here,
what could the United States Government do to help?
Mr. Coll. I would just also like to add to the list of
countries, we should focus on Venezuela. From the Catholic
perspective, a country that is one in which the Catholic Church
is the victim of a tremendous amount of political and other
pressure, and where one can only hope that political
developments will evolve in a way over the next couple of years
to restore that country to a fuller expression of religious
freedom.
In terms of recommendations, I will just mention again that
from our perspective the Frank Wolf International Religious
Freedom Act of 2015 would be a great step forward in terms of
enabling the State Department and other political actors within
our government to vindicate more effectively religious freedom
around the world.
Mr. Luna. The focus having been on documentation, as I
said, was a great contribution, but the word here was mentioned
``enforcement.'' So I affirm the support of this act because it
moves us along, but the idea of enforcement, I think, is the
direction that we could move to.
And I also add from the evangelical perspective Venezuela
as well. Criminal elements are always handled by people of
power and authority. The guy that you hire or the mob you hire
is there at somebody's hiring, so we have seen a great increase
of that. And in the midst of that we have seen great growth in
the Church. A recent newspaper article from the government said
that one out of every five Venezuelans is now an evangelical
and it is a difficult position for them to be in.
Mr. Petri. I think all the efforts that are being done
currently to strengthen the states should actively integrate
the perspective of religious freedom much more than is the case
now. That is, I think, my main recommendation, understanding
the full scope of religious freedom violations in Latin
America.
And then as I said, take advantage of the current dialogue
with Cuba to address religious freedom. Also take advantage of
the current dialogue between the Colombian Government and the
FARC guerillas and try to urge Colombia to put religious
freedom on their agenda as well, just taking advantage of the
current context.
And there was another recommendation I made, I think, is
that the U.S. Government should work together with Latin
American states to create a system in which Christian leaders
feel free to denounce threats that they are victims of threats
against them, because that is also something. If they cannot do
that in their own country because there is corruption, because
there is impunity, because they are often too afraid to
denounce and to report what they are facing there should be an
alternate system for the case to get out.
Mr. Donovan. Do any of you think that economic pressure
will help the governments realize that they have to do
something about the oppression of religious freedom in their
countries? One of the fears, always, of our country putting
economic pressure on another country is that the government
doesn't suffer, the people suffer. And so whatever pressures we
put on, whether we stop trade or we stop sending resources
there, it is actually the people who we are trying to help are
the ones who actually get harmed.
Does anybody believe that some economic pressure on any of
these countries would make them turn around and realize that
losing American support economically isn't worth what they are
doing in their country?
Mr. Coll. Speaking from our perspective at the U.S.
Conference, we would strongly advise against the position of
sanctions or economic pressures for two reasons. First of all,
we do not believe that historically economic sanctions have
been effective. Secondly, we believe at the root cause of many
of these difficulties, the violence, the political economic
instability, the trafficking issues, resides a tremendous
economic challenge that those societies must face. We believe
that proper economic development, integral economic development
is the path forward for these countries, and to impose
sanctions on them that would cripple them in the development of
their economies would be counterproductive and, we think, lead
to worsening conditions.
Mr. Luna. And just the idea of not sanctions but
incentives, economic incentives for those that deal with these
issues is important, but I think there is one realization that
must be made. One thing is dealing with the government, the
other thing is dealing with government officials. Official
government policy may be right, but government officials, just
to give you one very brief example.
In Chiapas, President Salinas De Gortari at that time went
to Chiapas to deal with the consejos, these landlords that
kicked out 30,000 people. Those community leaders are called
consejos. When he went, because of economic incentive that if
we passed the Free Trade Agreement it would be good for Mexico
from his end, people in the States thought it would be good for
here and everybody was in agreement.
And he went down and he says, hey, you guys really need to
watch it here. Talked to a few of the presidents, local
presidents, community presidents. He says, it will be really
good if you guys could like tone it down and respect the laws--
because they have their own laws that they implement. And this
is what the community leader told the President. Mr. President,
you go preside in Mexico City but I am the president here.
So if there is an incentive, in this case both sides on
incentive with Free Trade Agreement and the president is
motivated and his administration is motivated, it is the local
official level, and how do you help them, through documentation
and some way of enforcement, help those local people that are
facing these situations even when the government says that they
are on your side but sometimes are powerless?
So how to do incentives and how to help those people that
are actually facing where if they come out of the shadow they
are going to, it is going to be a death threat. I mean, it is
that simple. Their kids are going to be taken. Their kids are
going to be shot. Especially in Central America, you mentioned
this happens all the time, so how to help that situation, I
think, is a challenge.
Mr. Petri. Yes, I would also advise against economic
sanctions. Instead, I would really focus on helping the states
to reform their institutions and to rebuild and strengthen
their democratic institutions, security system, justice system,
but adopting an integrated approach that really pays attention
to the enforcement of religious rights. I think that is the
priority. Not economic sanctions, but focusing on helping
states to become more effective at guaranteeing the enforcement
of religious rights.
Mr. Donovan. Whereas, opposed to sanctions, as the
gentleman said, incentives is still economic pressure.
I don't think I have any more time, Mr. Chairman, but if I
do I yield it.
Mr. Duncan. I thank the gentleman. You hit on one of the
points I was going to bring up in my second round, is that as I
said in my opening statement, the ability to worship and
exercise one's faith without attack, censure or bribery or
government reprisals is one of the most important metrics of
freedom in any country. And I appreciate you all talking about
the impacts from religious freedom on economics and what not.
So shifting gears a little bit, let me ask you this. In
Mexico we have got the law of uses and customs. How can the
Mexican Government better monitor the implementation of the law
of uses and customs to ensure it is practiced in accordance
with human rights guarantees in state and Federal law? Ms.
Stangl?
Ms. Stangl. The Mexican Government already has very good
mechanisms to monitor these cases and they are aware of the
cases. The issue again, as was mentioned before, is
implementation, rule of law and impunity. There are excellent
state human rights commissions that monitor and actively work
on these issues. There is a great national human rights
commission that also does very good work. The problem is,
although these are kind of quasi-government bodies, the
government itself never implements what they do, what they
recommend in the cases they are working on.
So I think the breakdown there is not so much the
monitoring but enforcing the law. People who commit crimes for
religious reasons don't get an exemption just because they put
a banner of religion over the top. Everyone should be held to
account in the court of law. And helping Mexico strengthen its
justice system, I think, would be a big step forward on that.
Mr. Duncan. We have talked a lot about Bolivia and Ecuador
and Mexico and Colombia and Venezuela. I am meeting with some
folks from Haiti in a little while and then the Prime Minister
a little bit after that. So when I think about the hemisphere,
I know that we talked about the Americas. The title of the
hearing is about the Americas. In general, we seem to be very
southernly focused here on Central America, Latin America in
general.
What about the Caribbean? What about Haiti and the
Dominican Republic? What about Bermuda or Canada? Those aren't
mentioned in these discussions. How do you feel about religious
freedom? Going into my meeting with Haiti, how is that
perceived in Haiti? What is the impact of religious freedom, or
is there oppression of any sort in Haiti or the DR or any of
the Caribbean nations that I need to be aware of? And I ask all
of you that. Mr. Luna?
Mr. Luna. Reflecting on your question, one more country to
add to move in the right direction is Peru as well. They have
also faced conflict. They have done a lot of work in moving in
the right direction.
In the case of Caribbean, I think Dominican Republic is a
case for strong relationship state-church on behalf of
religious liberty and human rights. There is a strong presence
and a strong desire in both groups. And in the case of Haiti,
this is from a local church contact, the issues that they
mostly focus on are development into such.
There was a time when any political party in the struggles
that Haiti has had can make anyone an enemy. And if you chose
not to be corrupt or if you chose not to help a certain party
do what it asked, you to do because you are in the
neighborhood, it became a death threat and an eviction. But
especially after the earthquake we have seen at least that
communities, because of a maybe shared common need, have come
together more and worked more intentionally toward being
problem solvers than problem makers, from a local church level
perspective.
Mr. Duncan. Mr. Petri?
Mr. Petri. Yes, well, actually compared with the Caribbean,
I think Colombia is a very extreme case as far as the issue of
religious freedom in indigenous territories is concerned. And
Colombia has, I think, in the whole continent the most far-
reaching, gives the most, the highest degree, highest level of
autonomy to indigenous communities. And in practice this gives
indigenous rulers free room to implement authoritarian
governments and where basic human rights, including those of
religious minorities or converts out of traditional indigenous
beliefs, are not respected.
I think this is something that must be denounced and it is
a constitutional provision that is, I think, really dangerous.
I am convinced that respect for indigenous traditions and
culture is very important in any democratic society, especially
in those countries where there is a strong and historical
presence of indigenous groups, but it must not be used as an
excuse to tolerate and endorse bad governance and gross human
rights violations such as, and those are the cases we are
talking about, as torture or exclusion from basic social
services.
This is also happening in Mexico, but the legislation is
all right except that it is not always being enforced. But in
Colombia the legislation actually does not, I mean the
constitution does not give to the central states the authority
to actually enter indigenous territories when faced with human
rights violations like this.
Mr. Duncan. Mr. Coll, real quickly.
Mr. Coll. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am very grateful
for the opportunity to offer some thoughts on Haiti and the
Dominican Republic which are countries that are of great
importance to us.
Haiti, a great example again of root causes, tremendous
poverty as we know, breakdown in the rule of law, breakdown in
the administration of justice. A tremendous need to monitor aid
carefully so that it ends up in appropriate projects that will
build up civil society there and thereby, among other things,
vindicate religious freedom.
Dominican Republic, as you know there has been a very
difficult situation there over the last couple of years given a
supreme court decision that the high court of the Dominican
Republic issued which threatens viability of certain residents
of the Dominican Republic, many of whom are of Haitian origin,
to continue to stay there. The government has been, I think,
attempting to rectify that situation by passing new legal
provisions that would provide a course for validating residency
on an ongoing basis.
As Ms. Stangl very eloquently pointed out in a different
context, the laws may be fine but we need to make sure that
they are administered effectively and that appropriate
resources are devoted so that all petitioners have the
opportunity to vindicate their rights.
So I would just respectfully request, and I am sure it will
come up in your conversations with the Haitian Prime Minister
as well given the fact that many of these affected residents
are originally of Haitian origin, that enough resources be
allocated in order to make sure that the legal remedies, which
the government is now passing to protect these residents,
actually work on the ground to permit these residents to make
claims to continue to stay in the Dominican Republic. Thank
you.
Mr. Duncan. Thank you. I yield to the ranking member.
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will make an
observation, then I have a question. To me when Pope Paul
visited Cuba I thought some changes would follow. Now you have
another Pope visiting Cuba next week. I just think that they
somehow legitimize the governments when you have such a high
ranking, or the highest ranking member of the Catholic Church
go into these islands where those so much oppression of
religion, and I don't know how they will see that.
So I am hoping that this visit will make a change, but I am
not very hopeful because they have had roundups, people have
been thrown in jail, the most active ones are to be kept away.
So to me this visit is more about legitimizing this whole thing
that has been going on with Cuba in the last 3 months, over the
last year, more than anything else, and the Church doesn't seem
to see that. Because I didn't see any changes when Pope Paul
went to Cuba.
And the question that I have, we are talking about
obviously all different types of religion and we also have the
Jewish community in South and in Central America. How would you
characterize the anti-Semitism trends in Latin America in
recent years? Because I know that Buenos Aires has about 200
Jews, Sao Paulo has about 80,000 to 100,000, and some of the
other areas. Ms. Stangl?
Ms. Stangl. Unfortunately, I think there have been
significant increases in anti-Semitism particularly seen in
Venezuela, but also in countries like Argentina. A lot of it is
rhetoric, sometimes things like graffiti, not actual physical
attacks but creating an environment of hostility. And many of
the governments of those countries, in the case of Venezuela,
has actually soaked that and encouraged that in some ways,
where other governments have stood back and done nothing which
allows this environment to continue to grow. I would say it is
something definitely the committee to watch.
The Jewish population has played a very important role
historically in many of these countries and will continue to do
so, I believe. But I think it is, looking at the general
climate of the world and what is happening in Europe
specifically, I would hate to see that kind of thing exported
and grow and increase in Latin America as well.
Mr. Luna. We can affirm that as democracy has weakened in
many areas of Latin America there is a definite rise in anti-
Semitism. Venezuela being one, Argentina continued, Ecuador. I
mean, we can go country by country.
We at CONEL/NHCLC started, in response started a coalition,
Hispanic Jewish coalition, got organized just a couple of
months ago. We were meeting with members of the Israeli
Government, Jewish community here and leaders in Latin America.
One of the ways that can be strengthened is that every
nation has, just like you have a Committee on Foreign Affairs
here, they have a committee that deals with the state of
Israel. In some of these places there is people of conviction
that want to do everything they can to make sure that they deal
with issues of anti-Semitism; that they don't just let acts of
anti-Semitism in conversation, in art, drawing, many which are
rising forth.
So we believe that one of the contributions that the
Christian community can make is to both use the word
``denounce,'' but also ``announce.'' Build, do some positive
contributions that can strengthen our relationship with the
Jewish community. When you don't know a community it is easy to
be opposed, but we believe very strongly that these steps need
to be taken which is why we have created this coalition.
Mr. Petri. Yes, you are very right to raise the issue of
anti-Semitism. I think apart from the cases of Argentina and
Venezuela which are really, well, mostly Venezuela but also
Argentina, the most serious cases or examples of growing anti-
Semitism, other countries of Latin America have also seen
isolated incidents and is something that should be followed and
monitored very closely.
Mr. Coll. Thank you. I would like to address the issue of
anti-Semitism because it is a very important one, but I would
like to just start out with a few comments on Cuba because I
think that the two issues are in a way related.
First of all, I want to express my deep respect and
compassion with the views that you have articulated. I myself
come from a family that originated in Spain and I know what it
is like to suffer the divisions that come from a civil war or
other political upheaval, and the terrible pain that comes from
having families be divided over political issues. And I have
deep respect for my friends in the Cuban American community
who, like you, Mr. Ranking Member, believe the way you do out
of tremendous good faith and a desire to see what is best for
the Cuban people.
Just by means of explanation, as you already know I take
comfort from knowing that it is not just the testimony of three
Popes now, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis,
but the Catholic Church in Cuba itself, which I had the
privilege of visiting a couple of years ago at the time of Pope
Benedict's visit, that is very strongly supportive of this new
opening and this rapprochement as a way of preserving the
rights of the Cuban people and hopefully opening the doors for
greater development.
That is a hope, but it is a hope that frankly is based on
our gospel values. And we as a Church embrace this objective
not just because we think it is right, but because we think we
are committed to do so by the words of our Savior Jesus who
told us to love our enemies and to engage in dialogue and to
forgive those who have harmed us.
So I would offer that in deep respect and with awareness
that your sense of the issues come from a greater commitment to
the good of the Cuban people just by means of explanation of
how we have come up with a different tactical approach. We
share your aversion to the way in which the Cuban Government
operates, and we hope and pray that this opening will vindicate
the rights of the Cuban people in the future.
How is this related to anti-Semitism? It seems to me that
part of the problem that exists, as Mr. Petri and others have
pointed out, Mr. Luna, is that communities in Latin America and
elsewhere have been ghettoized, have been separated from one
another. They have not experienced the truth of their
respective religions.
Dialogue is a great avenue toward overcoming those
separations. We see the blessed relationship that exists
between Pope Francis and a number of leaders of the Argentine
Jewish community and how that dialogue, that relationship, that
friendship has hopefully started the path toward the mitigation
of anti-Semitism in Argentina, and we see that dialogue, that
communication with hope toward opening up other areas of
dialogue so that anti-Semitism and all other forms of hatred
and division will be eliminated. Thank you.
Mr. Sires. I will just finish by saying that the way
Venezuela is going is just a satellite of Cuba.
Mr. Coll. Yes.
Mr. Sires. This is exactly what they do. After they took
control in 1959, they went after the church to destroy the
church and they were very successful, or any other religion.
And I think you are seeing the 33,000 proxies that are in
Venezuela from Cuba going about it the same way. Venezuela was
a religious, the people, was go to church and now they are
afraid to go to church. They are afraid to express their
religion.
Mr. Coll. Yes.
Mr. Sires. So what we are seeing is the Cubanization of
Venezuela.
Mr. Coll. I definitely share your concern, Mr. Ranking
Member. I was in Venezuela 3 years ago meeting with the local
church there and very much support the view, the concern you
have about trying to support their work so they don't end up
with the same tragic consequences as in Cuba.
Mr. Sires. Can I just add something else? I am sorry. This
is fascinating to me because I saw the Church in Poland.
Mr. Coll. Yes.
Mr. Sires. How active it was.
Mr. Coll. Yes. Yes.
Mr. Sires. And basically moving that country forward.
Mr. Coll. Yes.
Mr. Sires. We don't see that movement in Latin America. We
don't see that movement in Central America.
Mr. Coll. Yes, yes. That is a great point, Mr. Ranking
Member, and I think there are a lot of historical reasons for
that. There is a different, frankly in Cuba there is a
different relationship between the Cuban Catholic Church and
the local colonial powers and then subsequently the local Cuban
Government that took over once the Spanish left.
I think your point is very well taken that institutionally
the Polish Catholic Church for its own historical reasons and
the experiences of World War II, et cetera, was in a much more
effective position to be able to take up the challenges of
supporting the political process than is the case and was
recently the case in Cuba.
As a result, I think the Cuban Catholic Church has felt
that its efforts to vindicate human rights and to move the path
of development toward the establishment of an authentic civil
society has to be effectuated through other means different
from the path of the Church in Poland. And, frankly, I think
that is one of the endorsements that Pope John Paul II himself
gave to the Church in Cuba for that choice.
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your indulgence.
Mr. Duncan. Absolutely. Thanks for the insight. I was
sitting here thinking about Communism in general, what we saw
with Mao and Stalin and they do away with the Church, do away
with that right to peacefully assemble and gather and talk and
worship somebody other than the government entity, the state,
as is was known.
I think in Cuba, I think Castro is probably more Catholic
than maybe Stalin or Mao were any religion. That is why I think
the Catholic Church maybe hung around a little longer. And that
is just my perception, but I think you are exactly right in
Venezuela. The elimination of religion in general helps
solidify the state as the religion, and I think we see that
over and over in a common pattern within socialism. So I want
to thank the witnesses. This has been fascinating.
I go back to the anti-Semitic activities. I will say this
about Uruguay. I think the way they have handled the terrorist
bombing against the Jewish cultural center or the embassy there
recently is probably indicative of they are not as anti-Semitic
as maybe other countries, and I applaud them for that is the
reason I wanted to bring that out, in their efforts to find out
about that bombing.
So we will conclude, and pursuant to committee rule 7, the
members of the subcommittee will be permitted to submit written
statements to be included in the official record, and without
objection the hearing record will remain open for five business
days allowing statements, questions and extraneous materials
for the record, subject to the length limitation in the rules.
Also if we have any additional questions we will submit those
to you and ask you to respond back and that will be made part
of the record. So without any other business we will stand
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:28 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the Record
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Prepared statement of the Honorable Alan S. Lowenthal, a Representative
in Congress from the State of California
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Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Jeff Duncan, a
Representative in Congress from the State of South Carolina, and
chairman, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
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