On 11 July 2021, spontaneous protests broke out across Cuba as people across the country came out to the streets shouting ‘patria y vida’ (homeland and life). Those who took the streets were protesting the chronic shortages of basic necessities made more acute following the global pandemic but many also called for social and political change.

The peaceful protests were met with violence and harsh repression after President Miguel Diaz-Canel made a televised call for ‘revolutionaries’ to take to the streets and fight. Hundreds of people, including Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, were arrested and many were subsequently sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. 

Rather than considering the demands of the protestors, the government dug in its heels, with Communist Party leaders vowing no social or political change. 

The shortages, especially of food and medicine, have only grown more severe in subsequent years. 

Many Cubans, disillusioned with the government, have found themselves unable to see any future for themselves on the island and joined a historic wave of emigration. Over the past five years, Cuba is estimated to have lost approximately a quarter of its overall population due to, in part, to mass emigration. 

Adding to the crisis, poorly maintained and aging infrastructure across the country, especially the national power grid, is failing, leading to prolonged and repeated black outs. 

Over the past year, numerous outbreaks of disease have put additional pressure on the health system, which many experts believe is on the brink of total collapse. 

The number of unhoused people, especially among vulnerable populations – for example the elderly, who may no longer have family physically in Cuba to support them, has grown exponentially.

On 3 January 2026, the US forcibly removed Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, and his wife. The rest of the Chavista government was left intact and oil deliveries from Venezuela, which up to then provided about half of Cuba’s oil needs, were halted under now President Delcy Rodriguez who has been backed by President Donald Trump. President Trump also threatened sanctions against other countries, including Mexico and Russia, which supplied oil to the island.

Local protests are regularly breaking out across the island. Over the weekend of 14 March 2026, protestors in the city of Moron in Ciego de Ávila Province, sacked the offices of the Communist Party, setting furniture and other items on fire, before doing the same to the building itself. In response, the authorities reportedly shot at least one person and cut off the internet to the city and its surrounding, in an attempt to stop news of the protest from spreading to other parts of the island. 

What are Christians doing?

Religious groups, including both Protestant and Roman Catholic, registered and unregistered, together make up the largest sector of independent civil society in Cuba. They have long provided social services – including food, medicine, and accommodations for those in need. 

Rather than supporting these efforts, the government has criminalised them, because by offering these services, the governments inability or refusal to do so is exposed. Despite the hostile atmosphere, religious leaders across the island continue to respond to the serious needs they witness in their communities.

How to pray:

• Pray for members and leaders of religious groups across the country who are enduring hardship themselves but still striving to meet the urgent needs of their neighbours. Ask God to provide miraculously and to protect them from harassments and interference by the authorities. 
  
• Pray for young people who see no future for themselves in their own country. The exodus of young people has contributed to difficulties in recruitment into the military and the strategy of the government has been to try to force more young men into obligatory military service. Pray for young men like 20 year old Kevin Lay Laredo Rojas, the son of Assemblies of God pastors. He had a medical exemption but instead was sentenced to four years in prison for desertion after he fled forced induction into the military. Also pray for 23 year old David Rosabal Cabrera, another son of a pastor who is married and the father of two children, who the authorities attempted to take by force in early March 2026.
  
• Pray for the release of political prisoners and encouragement for their families. Those in prison often suffer disproportionately when there are any kinds of shortages on the island and many are held in inhumane conditions. Many of their family members, like Marta Perdomo, whose two sons were both imprisoned after the 11 July 2021 protests, have also been blocked from attending religious services due to pressure from the government to socially isolate them.
  
• Pray for members of groups like the Ladies in White who are, week after week, violently detained to prevent them from attending Sunday mass and for followers of Afro-Cuban religions, including Yoruba leaders who are subjected to constant harassment, fines and are often forced to shut down their religious celebrations. 
  
• Ask God to protect members of independent civil society, including religious leaders and Christian influencers, who are harassed, threatened and detained for exercising their right to freedom of speech, including when they speak publicly about the needs they see in their communities.
  
• Ask God to soften and transform the hearts of those in authority. Pray that rather than repressing those who speak out about or try to address the serious needs across the island, they would listen, allow for open discussions, and seek ways to support and work with those leading initiatives at every level to feed the hungry, house the unhoused, and heal the sick.
  
• Pray for a peaceful, structured transition to democracy and a Cuba where the rights of all are upheld. Ask God to build a sense of unity and agreement amongst religious leaders, and to give them wisdom and grace to use their influence and to shepherd their communities to pursue peace, justice, truth and reconciliation.
  

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