30th June, 2015
Persecuted church advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide has again condemned what it says is a trend for the arbitrary and illegal expropriations of church properties by the Cuban Government, citing a recent case in which travel bans were placed upon a church minister as "a clear demonstration" of a government strategy to exert more control over religious leaders and faith organisations.
The UK-based organisation says Reverend Yiorvis Bravo, a leader in the Apostolic Movement in the country, was recently banned from leaving the country to attend a course in Peru, due to his refusal to acknowledge the government owns a property which was arbitrarily confiscated from him in 2013 and to his failure to since pay the authorities rent on the property.
The property in question – a family home which is used as the national centre of the Apostolic Movement and as a church – was transferred to Rev Bravo when the former owner, former prisoner of conscience, Rev Omar Gude Perez, accepted asylum in the US in 2013, according to CSW. That transfer was nullified by a Cuban court in September that year.
Rev Bravo, however, refused to vacate the property and was then offered the chance to remain in the building if he paid authorities $US300 a month, a amount CSW says is 15 times the average annual salary in the country, and submitted all activities to the government in advance for approval. Rev Bravo has refused these conditions. A request for "precautionary measures" has been filed with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission on Rev Bravo’s behalf.
CSW says it has received numerous reports that, since new legislation came in earlier this year, the Cuban Government has been targeting more church properties in a similar way, informing churches their properties have been expropriated by the state and that their status is now that of tenant rather than owner.
Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of CSW, said the organisation had repeatedly raised concerns about the growing number of registered and unregistered churches which have been informed their properties have been arbitrarily expropriated.
"The current situation of Reverend Bravo is a clear demonstration that the strategy behind this expropriations is to exert more control over religious leaders and bodies of faith…" he said. "We continue to condemn the illegal expropriations of church properties and call on the Cuban Government to rescind these orders of confiscation immediately. Furthermore we call on Cuban authorities to lift any restrictions on travel for Reverend Bravo without delay."
– DAVID ADAMS
