Morning Star News, November 15, 2020
Authorities in Cuba have demolished a church building and are blocking other churches from re-opening after the lifting of pandemic restrictions.
“Today the government is blocking the re-opening of some of our temples, which we closed due to the pandemic, based on the argument that they’re illegal, when 90 percent of our churches are illegal because they don’t offer us a pathway for making them legal,” Pastor Julio C. Sánchez said.
The church obtained legal status, and thus the right to negotiate with officials, before the onset of the regime of Fidel Castro in 1959 halted legalizing new churches.
“The reality is that this is part of a government campaign against the church, because we have made a front against its agenda of establishing gender ideology and other laws openly contrary to Christian principles.”
Accusations against evangelicals in state-controlled media are constant and growing, portraying them as extremist, homophobic, anti-development and used by anti-government groups, he added.
To demolish the sanctuary, police who arrived early in the morning had to remove more than 30 Christians who had gathered there to pray and did not hesitate to use violence.