Video Reveals Details of Demolition Of An Evangelical Church In Camagüey

Video Reveals Details of Demolition Of An Evangelical Church In Camagüey
/ 14ymedio
Posted on January 17, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pon_RSyvgl4

Note to readers: The video is not subtitled, but allows viewers to see
the church before and after the demolition. The introduction notes that
the video was filmed mostly clandestinely and apologizes for the poor
quality.

14ymedio, Havana, 17 January 2016 — With his cell phone camera and
through the window shutters, a man captures the police operation around
an evangelical church in the city of Camagüey. The image is part of a
recent video with details and testimonies about the demolition of the
roof of Pastor Bernardo Quesada's church on 8 January. [An interview
with Pastor Quesada about these events is here.]

The recordings were made by several members of the Fire and Dynamics
congregation to record surveillance around the temple, the machinery
used to bring down the roof and the dismay among the faithful caused by
the demolition of the church. Complaints and cries of faith are heard
throughout the audiovisual material, along with brief interviews with
parishioners.

The center of worship is located in the Versalles neighborhood in the
city of Camaguey and is part of a Christian movement that split the
Cuban Council of Churches in 2003.

In the early morning hours of 8 January, police forces raided the home
of the pastor, who was violently arrested and taken, along with his
wife, to the police station on Avellaneda Street, near the train station.

The nave that had served as a temple was totally destroyed. The conflict
between Quesada's church and the authorities dates back to 2012, when
the pastor's wife bought a property to serve as their home, and began
renovations of a roofed open-walled structure for religious activities.

In October of that year, the Department of Physical Planning fined the
owner for not having requested permission for the work on the
outbuilding, which the authorities considered an independent housing
unit. The pastor says that the administration of the agency itself had
assured him that permission was not necessary.

On 3 December of last year, the religious leader was summoned to a
meeting at the Provincial Department of Housing and was told he would
have to demolish the roof of the outbuilding. The demolition would have
to be undertaken within seven days of that date.

Quesada made an urgent call to the international community through the
digital site Religion in Revolution, in which he claimed that it was a
persecution "against the Church where more than 600 people
gather." However the authorities proceeded to demolish the temple at the
beginning of this year.

Source: Video Reveals Details of Demolition Of An Evangelical Church In
Camagüey / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/video-reveals-details-of-demolition-of-an-evangelical-church-in-camaguey-14ymedio/