Cuba's Santeros offer gifts and ask deities for peace as tensions rise with USHAVANA (AP) — As tensions rise between the United States and Cuba and the island braces for more economic difficulties, priests and priestesses of the Afro-Cuban religion known as Santería held several ceremonies on Sunday, offering gifts to deities and asking for peace. African and Spanish traditions syncretized, giving rise to Cuba’s strong Afro-Cuban identity. On Jan. 2, Cuban Santería priests known as babalawos predicted the possibility of war and violence that would affect Cuba and the world using traditional divining methods. Venezuela is one of Cuba’s main political, ideological and commercial allies, and the attack shocked the island’s population. Then, the priests and parishioners moved to a large room in the house for the second part of the ceremony.