Pastors Increasingly Targeted, Harassed in Cuba
7/29/2025 Cuba (International Christian Concern) — Pastor Maikel Pupu Velázquez vanished about 14 hours after delivering epilepsy medication to an acquaintance’s granddaughter on July 9 in Cuba.
Velázquez delivered the medicine to the granddaughter of Marta Perdomo Benites, whose sons were imprisoned for participating in a peaceful protest in July 2021 in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque.
Immediately after the delivery, Velázquez was abruptly barred from entering Perdomo Benites’ home. Moments after completing a phone call with another pastor, he disappeared. His phone was instantly switched off, severing all contact.
Pastors from the Alliance of Christians of Cuba (ACC) launched a search for Velázquez, combing hospitals, detention centers, and police stations — yet their efforts yielded no clue to his whereabouts.
At around 2 a.m. on July 10, Velázquez was discovered outside his home, clearly shaken after enduring a traumatic interrogation and serious threats. When questioned, he would not disclose details of the incident and behaved erratically, sometimes yelling and at other times falling eerily silent.
Pastor Velázquez’s abduction is only the most recent in a string of alarming cases of pastoral harassment in Cuba.
On May 20, the 18-year-old son of Pastors Luis Guillermo Borjas and Roxana Rojas was forced to complete Mandatory Military Service (MMS), despite his parents’ urgent plea for exemption due to his medical and psychological conditions. Their demand was ignored, and when their son fled the military facility, they were swiftly summoned before a military tribunal.
Borjas’ parents presented official documents from a medical commissioner to prove the exemption, but the military prosecutor dismissed the evidence as false. In protest, Pastor Guillermo Borjas declared that God would hold the court accountable. Since it is illegal to mention God during a military court, authorities immediately detained the parents.
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