{"id":29115,"date":"2019-11-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/religious-freedom-defender-detained-4490\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:55:56","slug":"religious-freedom-defender-detained-4490","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/religious-freedom-defender-detained-4490\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious freedom defender detained"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A prominent religious freedom defender in Cuba has been detained and is being held incommunicado. Ricardo Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre presented himself at the Camag\u00fcey police station at 1pm on Tuesday 12 November after he received a verbal police summons the day before. He has not been seen or heard from since.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry Constant\u00edn Ferreiro, a journalist at the independent Cuban journal \u2018La Hora de Cuba<\/a>,\u2019 reported<\/a> that the authorities refused to share any information with Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre\u2019s wife or work colleagues who had gathered outside the station to wait for him. Instead, an officer told the group that there was an investigation into Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre, and that he would be held incommunicado for four days. Mr Constant\u00edn Ferreiro also reported that when Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre\u2019s wife, Yusleysi Gil Mauricio, entered the station to ask about the charges against him, \u201cthree State Security agents threatened and insulted her and Ricardo\u201d and told her he \u201cwould be judged for being a counter-revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre, who has documented over 60 violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) this year, was previously detained and held without charge<\/a> in July. He was held incommunicado for four days and released after ten days. Shortly after this experience he expressed concern to CSW that the Cuban government would attempt to fabricate a criminal case against him, concerns that seemed to be confirmed when many of his neighbours and colleagues reported that they had been approached by Cuban State Security officers asking questions about the activist. Mr Constant\u00edn Ferreiro reported that the three State Security agents told Mrs Gil Mauricio on Tuesday that a “key witness for the accusation that supposedly had been lodged” against Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre would be brought to the station the following day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cuban government has ramped up attacks on FoRB and pressure on religious leaders since the adoption of a new constitution<\/a> which severely weakened language on FoRB and freedom of conscience in February this year. On Sunday 10 November the president of the Eastern Baptist Convention, one of the largest protestant denominations on the island and one of the founding members of the Cuban Evangelical Alliance<\/a>, was stopped from boarding a flight and informed that he is banned from leaving the country. Other prominent Protestant leaders, including the leaders of the Evangelical League and the Methodist Church of Cuba, both also founding members of the Cuban Evangelical Alliance, and Pastor Alain Toledano Valiente of the Apostolic Movement, have also been placed on a travel ban list<\/a>, supposedly for reasons of national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Head of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: \u201cWe are deeply concerned about the wellbeing of Ricardo Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre and call on the Cuban government to release him without charge immediately. Ricardo has dedicated himself to investigating and documenting violations of freedom of religion or belief experienced by people of all faiths across the country. Rather than attempting to criminalise this peaceful human rights work, the Cuban government should instead focus on improving its FoRB record and upholding the rights of its citizens to practice their religion or belief without interference from the state. We urge the Cuban government to lift the travel ban on Cuban religious leaders and human rights defenders without delay.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prominent religious freedom defender in Cuba has been detained and is being held incommunicado.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43252,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[140,137],"class_list":["post-29115","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-cuba","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39699,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29115\/revisions\/39699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29115"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}