«We are always going to be persecuted within a communist system,» denounce Cuban shepherds

Three Cuban shepherds on Wednesday denounced the harassment of which they are victims with other religious groups on the island, a day after the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom proposed to that country to redirect Cuba as «a country of special concern» On this subject.

Carlos Alberto Montoya, founder of the Israelite community Bet-El Shalom in the Cuban capital, pointed out that the main problems they face as religious leaders, «we are already apostles or not», they are those that afflict the population in general.

«We have no right to express ourselves, not only in our faith, but also in our political concepts, which we also have as civic citizens that we are. We have no right to legalize our temples, we have no right to be recognized as an expression of faith in a nation. When we are in this situation, then we are even more repressed, more observed, more fenced,» he explained.

Montoya said that on the island religious freedoms will always be limited by the regime’s own nature.

«We will always be persecuted within a communist, totalitarian and repressive system like this,» he concluded.

The apostolic pastor Jorge Luis Pérez, from Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba, mentioned that on the island there are more than 2500 independent churches, which are not legally recognized by the Government, in the Council of Iglesias de Cuba.

«The persecution is maintained and there is animosity and constant persecution towards the unregistered religious groups … citations, interviews, social networks censor, it is a reality, and I think it is very good that Cuba be kept in that list,» said Pastor Santiaguero.

Mario Jorge Travieso Medina, apostle of the “RECIO WIND” Ministry of Las Tunas, listed all the prohibitions to which they are subject and said that today they are under threat that a property of his church is confiscated.

At the same time, he recalled that the authorities pursue any attempt to expand their faith: «They do not let us build anything, they do not let us go to the places, for example to the parks, which is immediately coming the police.» Nor to the hospitals, he added.

Naughty Medina explained that they already have more than 10 representations of their church in the province.

«You cannot rent a place that is from the government, they do not let you build, you are suffocated in everything. They do not let you bring people from outside, important people from other nations, who are pastors, praise leaders, so it is a blockade in all the senses, who have it with the church … Then, we are here, enduring everything they tell us, but we do not have any law. Apostolic «Wind Recio».

The report of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom He denounced that in 2024 the conditions of religious freedom in Cuba remained deplorable.