Protestant pastor and 16-year-old son detained

CSW joins calls for the immediate release of the 16-year-old son of a pastor who was detained along with his father in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba on Monday 16 March.

While Pastor Elier Muir Ávila, who leads Tiempo de Cosecha Independent Church, was released at 5.30pm on the same day he was detained, his son Jonathan Muir Burgos remains in custody, accused of participating in protests that took place in Morón on 13 and 14 March.

The detentions of Pastor Muir Ávila and his son took place within a context of civil unrest, with protests spreading across the island following seven consecutive nights of black outs and extreme shortages of food and medicine in many parts of the country. These included protests in Morón, during which, in the early hours of 14 March some protesterssacked and then set on fire the Cuban Communist Party offices in the city. One protester was reportedly shot. The government shut off the internet to the city and surrounding areas, in an apparent effort to stop news of the protests from spreading.

While Jonathan has not been formally charged, he was reportedly interrogated about his presence at the protest and specific things he might have said, including whether he specifically called for freedom. Freedom of religion or belief activistReverend Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso has called for urgent action on Jonathan’s behalf, noting similarities between the case and the arrest of Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo and his teenage son following the nationwide protests of 11 July 2021.

Reverend Lleonart Barroso, who leads the Cuba-focused independent civil society organisation the Patmos Institute, said that in both cases the pastors had a long history of being targets of the government because of their leadership of independent, unregistered churches. Pastor Muir Ávila was visited on multiple occasions in 2024 by religious leaders acting on the request of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) and by local government officials who warned him,according to the Patmos Institute ‘…only churches that the CCP accepts exist, and only pastors who the CCP recognizes can minister, and so, neither he, nor his church were authorized to exist’.

Jonathan has a serious medical condition and there are concerns for his health. The Cuban government has a long history of targeting the children of church leaders as a pressure tactic. Earlier this month, government officials attempted to forcibly take the 23-year-old sonof another unregistered pastor into military service.

CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘CSW demands that the Cuban government immediately release Jonathan Muir Burgos into the custody of his parents. The detention of a 16-year-old child, with a serious medical condition, simply because he attempted to exercise his freedom of expression is unconscionable. Despite the gravity of the situation on the island – with rampant hunger, scarcity of medicine, outbreaks of disease and the failure of the power grid, the answer of President Miguel Canel Diaz and the Cuban Communist Party is to round up and imprison those who dare to call for change. The international community must make it clear to the Cuban government that its harassment, threats against and arbitrary detention of peaceful civilians, especially children, is unacceptable and must stop.’