Cuban State Security agents detained two Christian pastors to prevent their presence at a roundtable to discuss religious freedom in Cuba. The Christian message of respect for human rights promoted by pastors Alejandro Hernández Cepero and Luis Eugenio Maldonado Calvo is considered a threat to the totalitarian communist regime, and they will do anything to stop that message from getting out.
Via Christian Solidarity Worldwide:
Cuba’s internal intelligence service detained an independent pastor and freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) defender in Havana in the early hours of 31 October and issued a summons to a second pastor for later in the same morning.
Alejandro Hernández Cepero, founder and pastor of an independent Protestant Christian group called the Alia Movement, also known as ‘The Return to the Good Path’, was detained and taken from his home by a Department of State Security (DSE) agent who identified himself as ‘Lieutenant Raúl’. Pastor Hernández Cepero had received a summons by telephone at 6pm on 30 October and complied the same evening at 8pm before being detained the following morning.
Sources told CSW that a second pastor, Luis Eugenio Maldonado Calvo, who works with a Protestant Christian denomination known as Rehobot, also received a summons on 30 October to present himself to the authorities in Havana at 10am EST the following day.
CSW received information indicating that two religious leaders have been targeted by the DSE because of their involvement in an initiative to organise roundtables to discuss FoRB in different parts of the island. A first set of roundtables was held on 3 October in Havana and El Cristo, Santiago. A second set is scheduled for today with representatives from a wide range of religious groups, including registered and unregistered associations, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Afro-Cuban religious groups having received invitations to attend.
Like all communist movements, the socialist revolution in Cuba is atheist because freedom and human rights are incompatible with socialism. Religious doctrine must not only be suppressed, but destroyed to ensure the survival of these tyrannical regimes.