Pastor arrested in Cuba after uploading Bible teaching to YouTube

Police arrested an Evangelical pastor in the Matanzas region of Cuba after recording and uploading a Bible teaching video to his YouTube channel. He said the arrest was part of a pattern of authorities targeting him for years because of his ministry.

Pastor Rolando Pérez Lora was arrested Sunday in a park in the Peñas Altas area of Matanzas, a location residents often use for internet access because it is one of only two places nearby with public Wi-Fi, the reports United Kingdom-based advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Pérez Lora had just finished uploading the recording to his YouTube channel, “Pregonero de Cristo,” which translates to “Christ’s Herald,” when officers detained him in the park. The pastor later said the recordings are part of a weekly routine in which he films Bible teachings outdoors and posts them online.

During those recordings, people in the area frequently stop to listen. Some ask for prayer, which is provided by the pastor’s wife, Gelayne Rodríguez Ávila, who was present at the park when the arrest took place.

Rodríguez Ávila recorded and shared a video of the incident on social media. In the video, she says, “We were making a video in the park, and they are taking Pastor Rolando away because he uploaded a video reading the Bible to his YouTube channel.”

The footage shows two police officers pushing Pérez Lora toward a patrol vehicle as he resists being placed inside. The pastor can be heard telling the officers, “You’re mistreating me for no reason; I haven’t done anything wrong; this man is mistreating me.”

As officers forced him into the vehicle, the voices of the pastor’s young children can be heard crying nearby.

The recording spread quickly across social media platforms. Dozens of internet users reposted the clip to Facebook, where it received more than 300,000 views in less than 24 hours and prompted widespread online demands for information about the pastor’s whereabouts and condition.

Authorities transported Pérez Lora to the Playa Police Station in Matanzas following the arrest. He was held there for about three hours before being released.

Pérez Lora later said authorities have targeted him for years because of his ministry, adding that the pressure began after he became a pastor in 2011.

Before moving to Matanzas, he led a church associated with the registered Evangelical League in the eastern province of Las Tunas. Security officials in that region repeatedly summoned him for questioning and sent patrol vehicles to his home, he said.

He added that police conducted surveillance of religious activities carried out by his congregation, including following church members during public prayer walks in towns where they gathered to pray for residents.

The detention took place during a period of unrest across Cuba, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Protests were reported in several areas of the island following seven consecutive nights of power outages and shortages of food and medicine.

In the early hours of March 14, protesters in the city of Morón in Ciego de Ávila province sacked and set fire to the offices of the Cuban Communist Party. One protester was reportedly shot during the incident.

Authorities also shut off internet access in Morón and the surrounding areas after the protests. A Cuban lawyer was quoted as saying security forces detained several activists and online commentators across the country during the same weekend and placed many others under house arrest.

In Cuba, religious activity operates under a strict regulatory system. Cuban law requires churches and religious organizations to register with the government to operate legally.

Unregistered religious groups often face surveillance, harassment and restrictions on worship or public assembly.

Government oversight intensified after nationwide demonstrations on July 11, 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest economic conditions, the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and limits on political freedoms.

Those demonstrations were among the largest public protests in Cuba in decades. Protesters shouted slogans including “Freedom!” and “Down with the dictatorship!” before police and military forces moved to disperse the crowds.

Open Doors, which tracks persecution of Christians worldwide, has reported that Cuban authorities often treat independent religious activity as a potential challenge to the ruling Communist Party. Church leaders or believers who publicly criticize human rights abuses or political corruption risk interrogation, arrest, smear campaigns or imprisonment.