Latin America – Page 9

Cuban pastor Enrique de Jesús Fundora and his wife.

Into Exile: Enrique de Jesús Fundora

Posted on 11/07/202313/07/2023 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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Why are Cuba’s religious leaders going into exile?

Posted on 10/07/202313/07/2023 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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A sign prohibiting the entry of Protestants into the community of Cuamontax in Huazalingo Municipality of Hidalgo State, Mexico.

Revictimization in the search for a solution to conflicts related to religious freedom

Posted on 25/05/202315/09/2025 by cswpress in Latin America, Mexico

Uriel Badillo is a father of a family who has been affected by the lack of religious freedom in the community of Cuamontax in Huazalingo Municipality of Mexico’s Hidalgo State. His father Gilberto Badillo, a native of the community, converted to Christianity in 2009, and in 2010 he went public with his new faith before his community as he began to conduct Bible studies and invite people to his house.

The community prohibited these activities and placed a banner at the entrance to the village that explicitly said, ‘No entry to Evangelicals’, which remained until 2021. I had the opportunity to see it on a visit to the state of Hidalgo in 2020.

The majority religion in Cuamontax is Roman Catholic; they hold parties and celebrations for various saints during the year but the most important party in the area that lasts a week is “Xantolo”¹ (Day of the Dead) and all members of the community are required to participate physically and financially.

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Maria Concepción, a member of the Great Commission Baptist Church in Rancho Nuevo in the Huejutla de los Reyes Municipality of Hidalgo state, Mexico.

After a brutal attack on one of their own, a religious minority community in Mexico is waiting for justice and religious freedom

Posted on 17/04/202317/04/2023 by cswpress in Latin America, Mexico

Maria Concepción began 2023 in hospital recovering from a brutal physical attack that was linked to her membership of a religious minority in her community. On 1 January she was admitted to intensive care due to constant vomiting that meant she was unable to keep food down. She spent ten days there before she was briefly released only to be returned to intensive care due to vomiting blood on 18 January.

As doctors did not report any improvement at first, her family did not see much hope at all, to the point that members of her church in Rancho Nuevo in the Huejutla de los Reyes Municipality of Hidalgo state, Mexico, had cleared a piece of land for her burial.

Mercifully, she pulled through. She returned home on 9 February, and today she walks with the help of her son and a cane. She still suffers from persistent back pain caused by being forcefully thrown into the trunk of a tree, but her recovery remains nothing short of miraculous.

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The international community must support the bravery of the Cuban people

Posted on 21/02/202321/02/2023 by cswpress in Cuba, Latin America

‘I don’t think that any man can get used to this place, and even more so when one knows that one is here unjustly.’
– Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo

Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo has been a prisoner of the Cuban government for over 18 months. He was arrested, among many others, on 11 July 2021 in the midst of unprecedented nationwide protests in Cuba, and he is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence on completely fabricated charges of ‘disrespect’, ‘assault’, ‘criminal incitement’ and ‘public disorder’.

He is one of many political prisoners on the island, his continuing detention just one reminder of the Cuban authorities’ relentless hostility towards religious groups it views with suspicion and fear.

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