Tag: exile

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.