Category: Into Exile

Cuban pastor Yordanys Díaz Arteaga.

Into Exile: Yordanys Díaz Arteaga 

Posted on by cswpress in Cuba, Into Exile, Latin America

It is believed that more than 300,000 people have fled Cuba since nationwide protests swept the country on 11 July 2021. Many of them are religious leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and others who were given no choice but to leave the island under intense pressure from the Cuban government. CSW’s Into Exile series tells some of their stories. 

Reverend Yordanys Díaz Arteaga was the pastor of Emmanuel Church, from the Reformed Christian Church of Cuba, a historic denomination with legal registration and a presence in the country since 1943. The denomination was also a member of the Cuban Council of Churches (CIC). Like most other leaders of registered religious groups in Cuba, and especially those in the CIC, Díaz and his denomination enjoyed a degree of religious freedom, provided they line cooperated with and supported the Cuban government. 

The pastor and his family began to experience harassment when the reverend began to question the motivations of his denomination for belonging to the CIC. In mid-2019 he was elected president of the denomination, much to his surprise. With the support of pastors in the denomination, he began to make various internal reforms. These were not to the liking Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (ORA) and soon thereafter, he received several warnings. 

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Cuban pastor Alaín Toledano Valiente.

Into Exile: Alaín Toledano Valiente

Posted on by cswpress in Cuba, Into Exile, Latin America

It is believed that more than 300,000 people have fled Cuba since nationwide protests swept the country on 11 July 2021. Many of them are religious leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and others who were given no choice but to leave the island under intense pressure from the Cuban government. CSW’s Into Exile series tells some of their stories.

Pastor Alaín Toledano Valiente and his wife, Marilín Alayo Correa, led Emanuel Church, one of the largest churches in terms of attendees in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba for 20 years. As part of the charismatic Protestant Christian network known as the Apostolic Movement, which the government refuses to register, Pastor Toledano, his family and his church were subjected to two decades of intense harassment at the hands of the authorities.

Their church building was demolished on two separate occasions by the government, and Pastor Toledano and his wife were regularly subjected to summonses, interrogations and short term arbitrary detention. Meanwhile, their daughters have been the targets of bullying and violence at school, orchestrated by school officials with the backing of Cuban State Security. In August 2019 he was threatened with imprisonment if his church went ahead with a planned event for women. In October 2021, officials informed him that a criminal case had been prepared against him, meaning he could be arrested and imprisoned at any time. 

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Cuban independent journalist Yoel Suárez with his wife and son.

Into Exile: Yoel Suárez

Posted on by cswpress in Cuba, Into Exile, Latin America

It is believed that more than 300,000 people have fled Cuba since nationwide protests swept the country on 11 July 2021. Many of them are religious leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and others who were given no choice but to leave the island under intense pressure from the Cuban government. CSW’s Into Exile series tells some of their stories.

Yoel Suárez is an independent journalist who has written extensively about human rights and freedom of religion or belief issues in Cuba. He has worked with non-state media outlets on the island since 2014.

Unsurprisingly, his work has provoked the regular ire of the Cuban government, which has subjected Mr Suárez and his family to years of harassment, fines, travel bans and threats, including the threat of the government taking custody of his young son.

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Cuban pastor Enrique de Jesús Fundora and his wife.

Into Exile: Enrique de Jesús Fundora

Posted on by cswpress in Cuba, Into Exile, Latin America

It is believed that more than 300,000 people have fled Cuba since nationwide protests swept the country on 11 July 2021. Many of them are religious leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and others who were given no choice but to leave the island under intense pressure from the government. CSW’s Into Exile series tells some of their stories.

In 2017, 26-year-old Pastor Enrique de Jesús Fundora and his wife established a ministry they named God Shakes Cuba and the Nations a part of the Apostolic and Prophetic Movement. This immediately made them a target of the government and cost Pastor Fundora his job as a chef in a private restaurant.

In July 2021 Pastor Fundora began to open ‘houses of prayer’ where he met with the relatives of people imprisoned because of their involvement in the 11 July protests, to pray for them and comfort them. In January 2022 Fundora was summoned by State Security, Cuba’s intelligence agency. He was interrogated and accused of holding conspiratorial meetings and of buying water and distributing it to those who had participated in the protests.

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Graffiti in Cuba.

Why are Cuba’s religious leaders going into exile?

Posted on by cswpress in Cuba, Into Exile, Latin America

Following the peaceful protests of 11 July 2021, many Cuban religious leaders and members of communities of faith have joined the largest ongoing wave of emigration since the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

The Cuban government requires that all religious groups and associations obtain legal registration from the Ministry of Justice, but make it almost impossible for them to do so. Since the Revolution, the government has granted legal status to only a handful of groups, and has stripped some, which had a legally recognised presence on the island prior to 1959 of their legal status. As a result, the vast majority of religious groups that did not have a legal presence on the island before 1959 exist outside the law, automatically making them targets of discrimination and harassment.

Over the past two years, Cuba has sent hundreds of dissidents to prison, where for those who hold religious beliefs, their faith often is used by prison guards as a pressure point. The government regularly violates the Nelson Mandela Rules, refusing to allow political prisoners to received religious visits, possess religious materials or participate in religious services inside the prisons. Political prisoners’ religious faith is regularly, publicly ridiculed. Among the growing number of political prisoners are leaders of unregistered religious groups.

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