Cuban prosecutors are about to jail an idyllic couple for eight years for mentioning God in their son’s military court in a new report showing the ongoing trend of increasing oppression in the island nation.
Rev. Luis Guillermo Borjas and Rev. Roxana Rojas of God’s Assembly were detained on May 19th and accused of disrespecting the authorities and overturning them. They testified in the military court of their son Kevin Laried Rojas, but were accused of fleeing military facilities at the age of 18 after being forced to take the services of a Cuban man.
When the couple presented medical board documents showing mental disorders and showed that their son was unable to serve in military service, military prosecutors accused them of lying and presenting false evidence.
“Pastor Borjas protested and said that court officials are responsible for ‘God’s justice’,” the CSW reported. “The prosecutors then ordered the couple to be detained and charged, claiming that it was illegal to mention God or God’s justice in a military court.”
Prosecutors are seeking an eight-year sentence for the charges. The denomination of the couple who lives Nueva Gerona in Isla de la Juventud has legal status in Cuba. Their trial is scheduled for June 9th.
According to a new report from CSW, Cuba committed 1,988 violations in 624 cases in 2024 as part of the increased repression that began in 2021.
The results included church closures, pastoral fines and forfeiture, according to a report released Thursday (May 29).
“The government continued to explicitly and secretly monitor religious activities through harassment of religious leaders based on informants and religious leader reports,” the report entitled “Resting: Systematic Restraint of Cuban Religious Freedom or Conviction.”
In one case, in May 2024, officials from the Revolutionary Defense Committee (CDR) organized a “accountability gathering” in front of the pastor’s houses in an unregistered church in central Cuba.
“Neighbors were invited to participate in an organized “discussion” about the dissolution of the pastor’s church,” the report states. “The pastor and his wife refused to go outside to participate, but we listened as CDR officials urged community members to distance themselves from the pastor’s church and the networks to which it belonged.
CDR officials spoke to residents about the government’s efforts to monitor and suspend “anti-government” elements in the community.
“The church was then closed,” the report said. “The pastor told CSW, “This is nothing more than a disguised act of rejection. In these comments, the representatives sought to trust the idyllic work we do by screaming at us.
In another case in Central Cuba, on February 18, 2024, an inspector from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) opposed the previous night’s registered church prayer for abuse and abuse of women, including women and Cuba in general.
“The PNR inspector warned that the pastor had ordered the pastor to promote ‘wrong ideas’, encourage anti-government sentiment, encourage counter-revolutionary communities, become more vigilant and pray for all sorts of changes in Cuba,” the report said.
The pastor was fined 15,000 pesos ($600 USD) and was imprisoned and threatened if he failed to comply with the order.
In one surprising case, the report notes that the man attacked church leaders during immunity during church services. Bishop Jorge Luis Perez of Cuba’s Christian Alliance, a network of non-registered denominations of religious leaders, led the Pentecostal Rehobot Church on July 7th, Minister of God’s Orthodox Church.
“The young man attacked Bishop Perez on the back with the blunt side of the weapon before a member of the church stolen him and called the PNR,” the report states. “The young man was released from police custody just a moment later, despite testimony from people on the scene. No charges were filed.”
Perez told CSW: “When I felt when I saw how national security was exempt from this young man I attacked without making a single accusation against him, when I felt when I felt it.
The bishop said that membership in Cuba’s Christian alliance and the social assistance projects they undertaked spurred the attack.
“The message is clear. They do nothing to those who commit violence against us,” he said. “I’m really afraid of my life and the life of my congregation.”
Authorities have hampered the consideration of dissidents and their families attending religious activities, part of a long-standing policy of socially isolating people critical of the government. The government has specifically targeted women from white groups and stopped the Catholic movement’s members from systematically gathering across the island.
Most of the time, women were involved in restraining women when they left home for several hours until the mass was over, but many remained in police vehicles parked in the tropical sun with windows closed, sometimes handcuffed, then dropped off in a remote location and forced to return home. Berta Soler Fernández and her husband Angel Moya were regularly selected for more serious treatment.
“Their home, which also serves as the headquarters of civil society organizations, was regularly surrounded by organized mobs, holding signs with offensive and insulting messages and recording the couple’s movements on their mobile phones,” the report states. “They were immediately taken voluntarily on most Sundays to leave the house and attend Mass.”
In most cases, the Department of State (DSE) agents took the couple to a PNR station. Sometimes they ordered them to undergo invasive medical tests separately. When held in separate prisons overnight and fined, they were sometimes told to sign Actas de Advertencia.
“Their treatment and their retained condition were inhuman,” the CSW reported, with Fernandez being sometimes denied water and sometimes ordered to undress and squat down in front of prison guards. One of the guards pushed his knee into Mr. Moya’s back, bent the other Mr. Moya’s right leg and flipped his ankle over, causing tears and inflammation in his wrist.
Authorities threatened and pressured religious leaders, and children were physically and verbally abused in schools due to religious beliefs, the report says.
“Leaders of unregistered religious groups were repeatedly harassed and threatened, while leaders of registered religious groups were targeting invasive surveillance, repeated interrogation and other pressure tactics,” he said. “CSW noted an increase in the application of fines to religious leaders, leading generally unauthorized religious activities and retaining religious activities in places where religious use is not approved, or both.”
The report found that authorities appeared to be particularly intended to target religious leaders and individuals who provided spiritual or material support to the families of political prisoners. Churches that cater to the sharpened humanitarian needs of many parts of the island last year were harassed and fined.
“In many cases, the aid they were trying to distribute was confiscated,” the report said. “People deemed to be opposed by the government systematically blocked attendance in religious service, usually through short-term voluntary detention.”
Officials tried to silence critical voices, but religious leaders from both registered and unregistered groups continued to publicly report and talk about freedom of religion and belief and other human rights violations, the report states.
“Undoubtedly, some Cubans are more cautious and many don’t see any option other than to get out of their way, but there are still many who continue to speak out for the people of their communities who are suffering, whether they face threats or the potential for harassment or imprisonment,” CSW said.
Cuba ranked 26th on the 2025 World Watchlist in the country that is the hardest to become a Christian.
