Cuban Baptist pastor faces consecuences of dissent

From the Miami Herald and Cubanet

Pastor threatened because of association with dissidents

HAVANA, Cuba, August 31 (Leafar Pérez / www.cubanet.org) – Baptist pastor José Carlos Pérez says he has been warned not to preach against the government.

Pérez, who graduated from the Baptist Seminary of Cuba in 1991, said he was forced by the Baptist hierarchy to leave the Cárdenas parish church in Matanzas province after criticizing several protestant denominations for remaining silent about human rights violations in Cuba.

“For that reason,” he said in an interview, “I had to leave the church in Cárdenas, and for publicly condemning the rapprochement of the Baptist hierarchy with Raúl Castro, I was separated from the Convention.”

He said there’s a campaign to disaccredit him and that he constantly receives anonymous telephone calls that he should distance himself from dissidents.

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