AREQUIPA, Peru – The Cuban regime’s State Security (SE) interrogated and attempted to intimidate Father Kenny Fernández Delgado over his social media posts about the Venezuelan elections.
A post by the parish priest on Facebook This weekend he said that SE agents questioned him regarding his call for a day of family prayer in the parks of all cities, for Cuba and Venezuela, last Saturday, August 3.
“The intention was only to pray for a solution to the conflict where peace and justice reign in Venezuela and Cuba, and I believe that this should be in the interest of all parties,” Fernández Delgado wrote.
According to the priest, it was interrogated by two agents of the Immigration and Foreign Affairs department of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), with the justification that he owns an apartment that he rents to Cubans.
The repressors pointed out that there is a possibility that, at some “remote moment” the priest decides to rent it to foreigners, so the regime “has the power” to summon him “as many times as it wants, even with less than 24 hours notice and at least once every six months, and without the need to present an official summons document.”
Kenny Fernández points out in his publication that this department has, among other functions, to do the same thing that State Security does with all citizens, but focused on tenants.
“Repress anyone who expresses a different opinion to what they call the Revolution, and harass them over and over again until they shut up, or take whatever repressive measures are necessary to silence them. I suppose this is to prevent them from being a ‘bad ideological influence’ on Foreigners who might decide to rent out their homes one day,” he explained.
Regarding the invitation to pray made by the religious leader, the agents said that it was “a pre-criminal activity and incitement to commit a crime.”
In the eyes of the regime, someone could take advantage of this call to “commit crimes against the Revolution,” in which case the person calling the protest would be held indirectly responsible for these crimes.
“That is to say, those of us who call for good deeds are responsible for what criminals do (…) Those who call for prayer in public places must ask permission from the corresponding authorities, according to the new Law on Communication and Demonstration, otherwise it is an illegal call,” argues Fernández Delgado.
In this regard, the priest emphasizes that dictatorships can only survive at the cost of deception and the repression of the desires of the majority, and of many other things contrary to “the commandments of the King of the Universe.”
“Know that your days are numbered, I recommend that you repent in time (…) I will continue to defend my freedom of expression and that of all Cubans,” he stressed.
In this context, at the beginning of May, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended keeping Cuba in the category of countries of “particular concern” due to the reported violations of religious freedom.
In his annual reportThe Commission describes the repressive actions of the Cuban State and underlines the urgent need for international attention and concrete measures such as sanctions directed at responsible entities and officials.
According to the document, Cuban legislation, including the recently approved one Social Communication Law and the updated Penal Code function as a tool to severely limit any religious expression that criticizes the Government.
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