CSW has renewed its call for Cuban leader Raul Castro to ensure that significant improvements are made in upholding religious freedom in 2014, after research showed a steady increase in religious freedom violations across Cuba in 2013 as the result of an ongoing government crackdown on religious organisations and individuals.
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Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) condemns attempts by Cuban State Security and Communist Party officials to forcibly confiscate a property which serves as the national headquarters of the Apostolic Movement, one of the largest protestant Christian networks on the island. The property, which is also the home of one of the network’s national leaders, is located in the central Cuban city of Camagüey. It was legally transferred by the former owner, Reverend Omar Gude Perez, to his nephew, Reverend Yiorvis Bravo Denis, before Reverend Gude Perez left the country earlier this year. In mid-September, Reverend Bravo Denis was summoned to appear at court, where he produced the documents, signed and notarized by a government lawyer, that prove his ownership of the property. Cuban religious leaders finished a visit to Washington, DC last week by publishing a joint declaration called “Thirty Questions for the Cuban Government”. Reverend Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso, Missionary Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez and Apostle Omar Gude Perez drafted the statement and questions which they say show that freedom of religion or belief is not respected in Cuba.
The members of the group, who represent both a legally recognized, historic religious organization and a newer religious movement considered by the Cuban government to be illegal, spent a week in Washington, DC in a visit facilitated by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). They met with policy makers and NGOs to brief them on continued violations of freedom of religion or belief in Cuba. Events in the first quarter of 2013 point to an ongoing trend of a broader political crackdown on religious freedom in Cuba, while reported violations tripled in 2012, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s (CSW’s) latest report on religious freedom in Cuba. Religious freedom violations reported to CSW in 2012, many involving dozens of people at a time, rose to 120 compared to 40 in 2011. These numbers do not include the hundreds of devout Catholics who were arrested, sometimes with force, and arbitrarily imprisoned during the week of the Pope’s visit, in order to prevent them from attending any of the scheduled Masses or other events. Church leaders in the Cuban city of Santa Clara have condemned the Cuban government’s refusal to allow Trinidad First Baptist Church access to its bank account. The accounts for the historic local church, with funds amounting to approximately US$27,000, were frozen by government officials in 2010.
In an open letter published in October 2010, the longstanding pastor of the church, Reverend Homero Carbonell, expressed hope that his retirement would convince the government to restore the church’s access to its accounts, which were opened with the International Finance Bank in 1988. He and other church leaders believe the church was targeted in part because of his refusal to acquiesce to demands from state security that he bar members of the Cuban dissident movement, including Sakharov Prize winner Guillermo Fariñas, from attending the church. Leaders of the Apostolic Movement, a fast-growing unregistered network of protestant churches, have condemned threats by government officials to destroy church property in the central Cuban city of Camaguey. They are also calling on the government to cease its harassment of relatives of church members. As Pastor Omar Gude Perez issues an open letter demanding that the Cuban government allow him to leave the country with his family, his wife Kenia is travelling to Washington DC this week to seek support for her family’s plight. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is calling for a full investigation into the murder of protestant Pastor Henry Rodriguez, 44, who was shot dead as he exited his church in Bogota, Colombia, on Sunday 16 September. Pastor Rodriguez was a leader at the United Pentecostal Church in the Marsella neighbourhood in the Kennedy sector of Bogota. |
Walter Blackwood
Associate Pastor with The Bridge Community of Faith in Kelowna BC Canada. Archives
May 2017
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