Cuban Police Demolish The Roof Of An Evangelical Church In Camagüey

Cuban Police Demolish The Roof Of An Evangelical Church In Camagüey /
14ymedio
Posted on January 10, 2016

14ymedio, Camaguey, 8 January 2015 – The police, on Friday, demolished
the roof of an evangelical church in Camagüey, according to Fernando
Vázquez Guerra, coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) in
the province. The center of worship, at number 27 Fourth Street in the
Versalles neighborhood, is led by pastor Bernardo de Quesada Salomon,
founder of Apostolic Move, a Christian movement that separated from the
Cuban Council of Churches in 2003.

Police agents stormed the pastor's house at dawn, and violently arrested
him and took him to the police station on Avellaneda Street, near the
railroad station, according to the evangelical pastor Alexis Segundo
Medina, who lives in Camaguey.

Several independent journalists and activists have reported police raids
and cuts to their phone service to prevent them from approaching the
Versalles neighborhood, according to Henry Constantin, a contributor to
14ymedio, who commented before he was arrested for trying to leave his
house.

In a phone call from the 14ymedio newsroom to the Cuban Council of
Churches, the president of that body, Joel Ortega, showed surprise at
the news, which he labeled as "worrying" and he asked for the phone
numbers of the pastors involved to investigate the information.

The conflict between Quesada Solomon's church and the authorities dates
back to 2012. That summer, the pastor's wife bought the building as
housing, reserving an outbuilding for church activities and making some
cosmetic changes. In October of the same year, the Department of
Physical Planning fined the owner for not having requested a license for
the work on the outbuilding, which the authorities considered
independent of the house. The pastor affirmed that the Provincial
Housing Department itself had assured him that a permit was not
necessary. In addition, the outbuilding is included in the deed of the
house, and so is considered a part of it.

In December, the religious leader was summoned to a meeting at the
Provincial Department of Housing where he was told that he should
demolish the floor of the outbuilding. Three years later, in December
2015, the minister complained that Camaguey Physical Planning had issued
a demolition order against a ceiling constructed in the outbuilding.

Initially, the order required demolishing the roof and was announced on
December 3, to take effect seven working days from that date.

On 4 December, Quesada made an urgent call to the international
community through the digital site Religion in Revolution, in which he
claimed there was persecution "against the Church where more than 600
people gather."

Source: Cuban Police Demolish The Roof Of An Evangelical Church In
Camagüey / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-police-demolish-the-roof-of-an-evangelical-church-in-camaguey-14ymedio/