Here is adapted synthesis of Aid to the Church in Need's 2003 Report on Religious Freedom in the World. This part focuses on the Americas.
Chile
The Catholic Church here has been accused by the Committee of Evangelical Organizations of defending family values "with a hegemonic attitude"; this was reported by Aci-Prensa last Oct. 18, during the parliamentary debate about the law regulating civil marriages. The Protestant community instead declared its approval for the introduction of a law in favor of divorce.
Colombia
The armed offensive launched by the Marxist groups belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) against religious, civilian and military targets, continues in this country.
Cuba
Obtaining permission to built new churches and premises for associations as well as repairing existing ones remains difficult in the island nation. The daily Granma Internacional considers the U.N. resolution, voted by a number of countries and establishing also constant monitoring of human rights on the island through a representative from the U.N. High Commission, as a sort of aggression penalizing Cuba.
Disregarding religious freedom, the Communist Party has emanated a document exhorting its members and supporters to work against the Catholic Church's influence over the population, mentioning explicitly -- as reported by the Katholiek Nieuwsblad of the Netherlands on April 19 -- "depapalization." Among the various forms of protest against the regime, there is also the Varela Project, a petition signed by 11,000 Cubans requesting a series of referendums in favor of democracy.
On June 28, the Italian newspaper Avvenire reported on three amendments to the Cuban Constitution approved by Parliament rendering communism on the island "irrevocable." To prepare this event Castro had previously ordered the opening of about 130,000 polling stations where Cubans could vote for this constitutional reform. These amendments effectively thwart the Varela Project.
Guatemala
A new trial has been approved for the soldiers and the priest convicted of the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan José Gerardi, after the Court of Appeal declared that the evidence provided by a key witness was not reliable. The Guatemalan bishops' conference expressed concern and surprise at the annulment of the sentence in the Gerardi case, adding that someone appeared to be interested in concealing the truth.
Haiti
The Catholic Church is involved in a serious battle against voodoo rituals that characterize the hybrid religion present here. Many Catholics seem quite happy to go to Mass and also take part in voodoo ceremonies; they do not actually believe in these rituals, but participate because of superstition, convinced that this will keep them in good health.
Mexico
For the first time in 150 years, homage was paid to the national flag in the cathedral in Mexico City on Independence Day, a sign that decades of anti-Catholic oppression are ending. Also positive sign is legislative reform currently being studied, which would allow religious organizations, after being ostracized for years by political authorities, to cooperate with the media and provide their services in public places such as hospitals and prisons.
Various prelates have been accused of political interference and mistakes made by individual priests have been used to attack the Church as an institution. Tension between Catholic and evangelical communities, meanwhile, appears to be slowly dissolving.
Venezuela
The Catholic Church has been the object of inspections and threats by the police, on many occasions for political reasons. There was also abuse at the highest institutional levels: President Hugo Chávez once described the Church as "a cancer for society." Furthermore, a group of the government's supporters attacked the cathedral in Caracas and molested the priests.
Although the Church has never spared criticism for the Chávez regime since it came to power in 1999, it has promoted mediation between the two fronts through Cardinal Antonio Ignacio Velasco García. He died earlier this month.