Authorities detain church leaders, members, influencers and activists

CSW condemns a significant crackdown by Cuban authorities on a range of Christian leaders, influencers, activists and church members over the past week.

At least five Protestant leaders from different denominations were detained on 6 November in Guanajay, Artemisa Province as they accompanied Anthony Martínez, a member of the Assemblies of God Church in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa and a digital content creator, as he complied with a summons from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) to appear at the Guanajay PNR Station. Mr Martínez had received three summonses in the previous three weeks. He was also detained before being released on Saturday 7 November.

The detained leaders included Eduardo Regalado Guerrero, a worship leader and youth leader at the Second Baptist Church, part of the registered Baptist Convention of Western Cuba (BCWC) in Alamar, Havana. They also included Alfredo Fominaya, a Christian influencer and youth leader at the Assemblies of God Church in Central Havana, also part of a registered denomination.

Pastor Rolando Pérez Lora, who is affiliated with an unregistered, independent church, was also detained. Pastor Pérez Lora was previously detained in September after he attempted to accompany a young Christian influencer and her mother to their trial, and in March after recording a Bible study and uploading it to his social media channel in a public park.

Chaplain Sergio Luis Serrano Pimentel of the legally recognised Open Bible Church in Guanajay, Artemisa, was issued an Acta de Advertencia, a kind of pre-arrest warrant for future crimes, for allegedly inciting civil unrest against the Cuban Revolution.

Some of the leaders were subjected to inhumane treatment while detained. Mr Fominaya was held for 12 hours during which he was stripped naked and forced to do several squats. He was then explicitly warned by Department of State Security (DSE) agents not to accompany anyone else complying with an official summons in the future. Mr Fominaya, Mr Regalado Guerrero and Pastor Pérez Lora were all transported to other parts of the country where they were dropped off. DSE agents intentionally broke Pastor Pérez Lora’s mobile phone before leaving him in the province of Las Tunas, around 650km away from his home in Havana.

At least two Christian influencers were also targets of the government on 6 November, apparently in an effort to prevent them and other activists from attending an event at the United States Embassy in Havana. On 6 November Karel Daniel Hernández Bosques, a member of Fuera de la Caja (Outside the Box), a group of content creators openly critical of the Cuban regime, was detained for 12 hours in Havana after complying with a summons for an interview with the authorities in Havana. Christian social media influencer, Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known online as Anna Bensi, posted on her Facebook page that her building was surrounded throughout the day and she and her mother were not allowed to leave their apartment.   

On the previous day, 5 November, DSE agents violently detained Berta Soler Fernández and María Cristina Labrada Varona near Ms Labrada Varona’s home in Havana’s Santo Suárez neighbourhood as they walked to La Milagrosa Church to attend Mass at around 8:15am. Ms Soler Fernández leads the civil society group the Ladies in White; Ms Labrada Varona is another member of the movement.

Agents reportedly pulled Ms Soler Fernández by her hair and used an immobilisation technique that aggravated her already injured hand. They forced her and Ms Labrada Varona into a police patrol vehicle and drove them to the 10th of October National Revolutionary Police (PNR) Station, also known as the Aguilera Police Station.

While Ms Labrada Varona was taken into the station, Ms Soler Fernández was forced to remain in the patrol vehicle, which was parked in the sun, with the windows shut and the radio volume turned high. She was then taken to the PNR Station in Cotorro, on the city’s outskirts, approximately 30 minutes by car from the 10th of October PNR Station. After several hours in a cell, she was returned to the 10th of October PNR Station.

Both women were released at around 6pm. In a statement to CSW, Ms Soler Fernández’s husband Angel Moya Acosta said: ‘Throughout this time [of their detention], the authorities provided no details regarding the reasons for the arrest, which leads us to conclude that the motive was the two women’s attempt to attend Mass’.

Ms Soler Fernández was detained again 7 November and held for 48 hours without charge after she joined a peaceful protest in her neighbourhood regarding the absence of water services.

CSW’s Director of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘CSW is alarmed at the recent wave of detentions and summonses of religious leaders, church members, and other individuals speaking out about the reality they see around them in Cuba. The detention of members of the Ladies in White on a Thursday as they attempted to attend a weekday Catholic Mass demonstrates that the Cuban government is not just attempting to stop them from peacefully protesting on Sundays, but to separate them entirely from their communities of faith. We call on the Cuban government, once again, to end the policy of blocking members of the Ladies in White and other civil society groups from attending church, to immediately cease its arbitrary harassment, inhumane treatment and other acts of intimidation aimed at silencing Christian influencers and religious leaders, and to uphold the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and religion or belief.’

Note to Editors:

1. The Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) is a peaceful movement founded in 2003 by Laura Pollán and made up of the wives and other female relatives of political prisoners. Ms Soler Fernández, a founding member, became the group’s leader after Ms Pollán’s death in 2011. The Cuban government has routinely blocked members of the movement from attending Sunday morning Mass across the country over the past 23 years, often through short-term arbitrary detention. Over the past year many members of the group have opted to temporarily stop attempting to attend Sunday Mass in order to avoid being detained and subjected to inhumane treatment.