Cuban Church Leaders Under Pressure to Sign Document Claiming Gov’t Demolition of Church was Legal

 The church has faced harassment and threats since 2015

The Cuban national flag is seen raised over their new embassy in Washington, . 

July 20, 2015| Reuters/Andrew Harnik/Pool

By Samuel Smith
Christian Post

Christian leaders in a southern Cuban town have faced pressure from government agents to sign a statement declaring that the recent destruction of the Assemblies of God Church was legal.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an international watchdog group that helps persecuted believers in over 20 countries, reports that authorities in Santiago de Cuba are trying to cover their tracks after a church affiliated with one of the largest demonstrations in the country was destroyed last Friday. 

The church in question is located in the Abel Santamaria neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba and is led by Pastor Fausto Palomo Cabrera. The church has faced harassment and threats since 2015. The government claimed that the church’s destruction was done for the construction of train tracks.  

Cuban independent journalist Ricardo Fernández Izaguirre reported on Sunday that the church’s demolition came after government authorities stepped away from negotiations with the denominational leadership. 

The denomination is one of the largest legally-recognized religious bodies by the Cuban communist regime, which often cracks down on non-state-sanctioned churches and believers. 

CSW earlier reported that a local pastor not affiliated with the church, Alain Toledano, was arrested for filming heavy machinery at the church early last Friday morning. 

In addition to Toledano, two members of his church named Adrián Arza and Félix Daniel González were also detained and held incommunicado for nine hours, the organization reports. 

Sources told CSW that Cabrera and the denomination’s regional superintendent, Jose Martinez, were apprehended by officials at the Department of Physical Planning on  Monday. 

“It is believed that the authorities are applying pressure on Pastor Palomo Cabrera and Superintendent Martínez to sign a document saying that the demolition of the church was legal,” a statement released by the watchdog group reads. “Local sources also report that the authorities are attempting to charge Pastor Palomo Cabrera for the use of the machinery used in the demolition.”

CSW CEO Scot Bower denounced the development.

“Cuban authorities demolished a church building belonging to a registered denomination, and are now attempting to pressure Pastor Palomo Cabrera and Superintendent Martínez into agreeing that the destruction was carried out legally,” Bower explained. “They are doing this in order to give the impression that this is not a violation of freedom of religion or belief.”

Bower warned that over the last five years, the church in the Abel Santamaria neighborhood has been targeted and harassed, which amounts to religious freedom violations. 

“We call on the authorities to cease all harassment of Superintendent Martínez, 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 — an essential component of this right,” Bower said. “We further call on the Cuban government to reimburse the church for their loss so that they can rebuild their place of worship.”

As a country ruled by a communist party, Cuba was placed on the U.S. State Department’s “special watch list” of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom last December. 

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North Korea: Christians Executed for Owning Bible, Newborn Babies Murdered

Though adherents of various religions are held in North Korea’s “reeducation” camps, the harshest punishments are reserved for Christians, the report found. 

People look toward the north through a barbed-wire fence near the militarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, December 21, 2017. | Reuters/Kim Hong-

By Leah Marie Ann Klett
Christian Post

A new report has exposed the atrocities done to North Korean Christians arrested for their faith, including forced abortions, the murder of newborn babies, and death by execution for possessing a Bible. 

The London-based Korea Future Initiative published its latest report, “Persecuting Faith: Documenting religious freedom violations in North Korea,” which includes information from 117 interviews with those exiled from the isolated country. 

The investigation documents 273 victims of religious freedom violations, ranging in age from just 3 years old to over 80 years old. 

Though adherents of various religions are held in North Korea’s “reeducation” camps, the harshest punishments are reserved for Christians, the report found.

More than 200 Christians were identified as victims punished for crimes, including religious practice, religious activities in China, possessing religious items, contact with religious persons, attending a place of worship, and sharing religious beliefs. 

The report documented the various methods of torture victims endured in North Korea’s prison camps, including strangulation, starvation, being forced to ingest polluted food, sleep deprivation, and excessive beating.

One former female prisoner recalled, "Men were beaten like dogs. Even in the cell. They screamed like crazy because they hurt so much. 

"Even though women were beaten less, I was hit in the face and my skin ruptured and I bled a lot. [Officers] told me to wipe the blood, so I cleaned it. I wept a lot when they hit me again. Blood and discharge ruptured during my next pre-trial examination. They hit me again because I wept."

In several cases, prisoners found with a Bible or religious pamphlets were executed by a firing squad, while others were locked in electrified cages and fed watery soup. Others were executed for smuggling Bible pages into the country from China for North Koreans to make prayer books.

In one instance, a victim found in possession of a Bible was publicly executed in front of over 1,000 people. The victim was tied to a wooden stake and executed by an MPS firing squad.

One witness told KFI, “I saw the flesh fall off. That is how close I was."

Another man, who had converted to Christianity, was allegedly forced into a metal cage that was just 3 feet high and 4 feet wide.

"There were steel bars on all four-sides that were heated with electricity,” he told KFI. "Usually prisoners lasted only three or four hours in the cage, but I sat there for 12 hours and prayed. I kept praying to God to save me."

The man eventually soiled himself and passed out before being beaten by guards, leaving him with severe injuries.

Investigators documented 32 incidents of sexual violence against women — who made up 60% of victims identified in the report — and forced abortions. 

At North Hamgyong Provincial MSS pre-trial detention center, for example, pregnant women were forced to get an injection to trigger labor. After giving birth to live babies, the newborns would be taken from them, smothered by guards using plastic sheets or cloth sacks, and then discarded in a cleaning cupboard.

“Mothers of the aborted infants were forced to resume manual labor the day after the abortion and without medicine or rest,” the report noted. 

Girls as young as 3 were forced to undergo “degrading internal and invasive nude” body cavity searches, according to the report.

In some cases, entire families were arrested and sentenced to separate political prison camps for adhering to Christianity.

One individual interviewed shared how 10 attendees of Bible study groups were arrested and sentenced to political prison camps. Later, the parent of one of the victims was informed that their child had died at a political prison camp. 

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Please remember to keep our persecuted brothers and sisters in North Korea in your prayers.

Persecution Unveiled has been called to prick the consciences of our nation and all free people to pray for, speak up and act on behalf of those who are persecuted for their faith. Follow us on Pinterest.