Pastor Alain Toledano Valiente is a church leader who has experienced over 15 years of intimidation and abuse from the Cuban authorities. His church and home have been destroyed twice, he has been charged with the crime of ‘disobedience’ for holding church events, and been banned indefinitely from leaving the country. ‘They want me to stop being a pastor,’ he says. But he has no intention of stopping.
The government has been abusing freedom of religion for years. Yet the people of Cuba are standing strong, and their courage is truly inspiring.
Targeted: children
Children from faith communities are frequently harassed. Last December a 12-year-old Jewish boy, Liusdan, was forbidden from entering his school while wearing the kippah (skullcap). In another case a pastoral couple chose to home-school their children rather than send them to state-run schools, because their children were experiencing severe bullying at school. This is the situation for Ruth and Joel Rigal, whose parents are now serving sentences in maximum security prisons.
Targeted: activists
Anyone who documents the human rights violations committed by the regime automatically becomes a target. Ricardo Fernandez Izaguirre is a religious freedom defender who found himself in the crosshairs after speaking up for freedom of religion or belief for all. In July last year he was taken off the street after leaving the headquarters of the Ladies in White, a peaceful protest group. He was held for a week, four of those days completely incommunicado. It happened again in November, when he was arbitrarily detained for 29 hours, interrogated and repeatedly threatened.
Targeted: churches
In 2016 you joined us to campaign for Maranatha First Baptist Church, which had been informed that the government was going to confiscate their church building. After thousands of you joined an international campaign to save the church, the government backed down - but they continue to obstruct the church’s attempts to construct a new building. We're delighted that they were finally granted the building permits last year after additional international attention, but this kind of bureaucratic obstruction is another tactic the government uses to harass churches.
The world wakes up to the reality in Cuba
When no one is watching, governments can get away with anything. But the international community is starting to acknowledge the situation - the United States recently added Cuba to its Special Watch List for countries that have ‘engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom.’ This sends a warning to the government, and Cuban church leaders have been calling for this for years, so we’re very pleased that their voices have finally been heard.
We’re keeping up the momentum by making sure the truth is heard around the world. Pastor Toledano Valiente’s wife, Marilin Alayo Correa, has recorded a moving and powerful video testimony about the yearslong campaign of intimidation andharassment her family has endured, and their determination to keep going. We’re making sure her video is seen by a global audience.
Back in Cuba, February 2019 saw a he adoption of a new constitution that weakened protections for religious freedom. A few months later the seven Protestant denominations, including the five largest in terms of membership, joined together to launch a new Cuban Alliance of Evangelical Churches. This kind of interdenominational unity has not been seen since the 1959 Revolution.
The Ladies in White is a protest movement comprised of the female relatives of political prisoners; every Sunday after attending Mass they march peacefully through the streets. For this they are regularly prevented, often violently, from attending any church services.
Berta de Los Ángeles Soler Fernández, leader of the Ladies in White, said, ‘[We] are very conscious that in my country we need freedom and rights, especially for the men and women who are in prison just for demanding this and promoting and defending the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With respect to religious freedom, we have been meeting at Catholic churches for Mass for over 15 years now, first to be near Christ and [secondly] to ask Him that He intercede and give us strength so that our men and women in prison would be free and that the heart of the government would listen.’
Encourage
Send a card to encourage Cubans like Alain and his wife. Download our free letter-writing resource at csw.org.uk/connectencourage