{"id":29304,"date":"2020-11-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/religious-leaders-under-pressure-to-sign-agreement-regarding-church-4864\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:00:06","slug":"religious-leaders-under-pressure-to-sign-agreement-regarding-church-4864","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/religious-leaders-under-pressure-to-sign-agreement-regarding-church-4864\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious leaders under pressure to sign agreement regarding church demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuban authorities in the city of Santiago de Cuba are pressuring religious leaders to sign an agreement regarding the demolition of their church. The Assemblies of God church, led by Pastor Faustino (Fausto) Palomo Cabrera, located in the Abel Santamaria neighbourhood of Santiago de Cuba, was demolished<\/a> by authorities on 30 October.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demolition began at approximately 7.30am when Cuban State Security, accompanied by heavy machinery including bulldozers, attempted to clear the area. According to Cuban independent journalist Ricardo Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre<\/a>, the church belongs to the legally recognized Assemblies of God denomination. Footage<\/a> of the demolition has emerged on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the demolition, Pastor Alain Toledano<\/a>, a prominent leader of an unregistered denomination, the Apostolic Movement, was physically apprehended<\/a> by the police whilst filming<\/a> the attack. He was taken to the Motorizada Police Station, where he was held alongside two other members of his church, Adri\u00e1n Arza and F\u00e9lix Daniel Gonz\u00e1lez, incommunicado for nine hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW sources report that Pastor Palomo Cabrera, and the Assemblies of God Regional Superintendent Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ednez were taken away by members of the Department of Physical Planning and other government officials at approximately 9am in the morning of 2 November. It is believed that the authorities are applying pressure on Pastor Palomo Cabrera and Superintendent Mart\u00ednez to sign a document saying that the demolition of the church was legal. Local sources also report that the authorities are attempting to charge Pastor Palomo Cabrera for the use of the machinery used in the demolition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s CEO Scot Bower said: \u201cCuban authorities demolished a church building belonging to a registered denomination, and are now attempting to pressure Pastor Palomo Cabrera and Superintendent Mart\u00ednez into agreeing that the destruction was carried out legally. They are doing this in order to give the impression that this is not a violation of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). CSW has been monitoring this case for more than five years during which the church has been consistently targeted and the building\u2019s demolition is indeed a FoRB violation. We call on the authorities to cease all harassment of Superintendent Mart\u00ednez, Pastor Palomo Cabrera and members of their church and denomination, and to ensure that they have the right to manifest their religion in public and in community with others \u2013 an essential component of this right. We further call on the Cuban government to reimburse the church for their loss so that they can rebuild their place of worship.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note to editors:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Pastor Palomo Cabrera\u2019s name has previously been reported as Pastor Polemo.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuban authorities in the city of Santiago de Cuba are pressuring religious leaders to sign an agreement regarding the demolition of their church.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43441,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[140,137],"class_list":["post-29304","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-cuba","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39888,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29304\/revisions\/39888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29304"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}