As tensions between Cuba and the United States rise and Cubans brace for further economic difficulties, priests and priestesses of the African-Cuban root religion known as Santeria held several ceremonies on Sunday and offered gifts to deities to ask for peace.

Several of the leading figures in Santería families on the island prayed to their deities for the “spiritual healing” of the Cuban people, an end to the violence and conflicts that, according to their predictions from late December, would happen this year.

They repeatedly chanted in ancient Yoruba, songs brought to the island by enslaved Africans and passed down orally. African and Spanish traditions syncretized, giving rise to Cuba's strong Afro-Cuban identity.

On January 2nd, Cuban babalawos predicted the possibility of war and violence affecting Cuba.

A day later, on February 3rd, the United States carried out an operation in Caracas and arrested then-President Nicolás Maduro.