Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: June 21, 2025
Our prayers today are for two Cuban pastors and their son, Kevin.
19-year-old Kevin has just been sentenced to four years in prison after running away from obligatory military service. However, his diagnosed health conditions should have granted him medical exemption.
Meanwhile, his parents are left with an eight-year sentence hanging over their heads because they mentioned their faith during Kevin’s military tribunal.
Pastor Luis Guillermo Borjas and Pastor Roxana Rojas are Protestant pastors in the Assemblies of God denomination. At their son’s tribunal on 19 May, the couple presented documents from a medical commission that found that Kevin’s psychiatric condition makes him unable to perform military service.
Yet the military prosecutor accused them of presenting false evidence.
Pastor Luis protested, saying that the court officials would be accountable to ‘God’s justice’. The prosecutor then ordered the couple to be detained and charged – claiming that it’s illegal to mention God or God’s justice in a military tribunal.
That night, Pastor Roxana was taken to hospital, unconscious, because of a chronic health condition, while her husband was held for five days before being released on bail.
The trial was set for Monday 9 June, so we sent out the word to pray on social media.
But for unknown reasons, the trial never took place.
It was postponed indefinitely, and the charges against them (disrespect and disobeying the authorities) still stand. This effectively leaves an eight-year sentence hanging over their heads.
The couple must also report to the police every week and aren’t allowed to move freely inside Cuba – making it impossible to visit their son, who was transferred to a maximum-security prison in another part of the country.
All this is sure to be used by the government to pressure them to keep quiet about Kevin’s situation. It sends the message to other religious leaders: this is what happens when you speak out against injustice.
Please pray:
- That Pastor Luis and Pastor Roxana will be acquitted of these unjust charges, and that the restrictions to their freedom of movement will be lifted.
- That the authorities will immediately free Kevin based on the recommendation of medical professionals. He is currently held in a maximum-security prison; one of the most secure, dangerous and restrictive in Cuba.
- For the strengthening and encouragement of both pastors and their son. We think especially of their health and wellbeing amid such stress and uncertainty.
Father God,
Thank you for those in Cuba who stand up for what is right. We ask for your special protection around all the religious leaders and human rights defenders who are being targeted right now.
We pray that the Cuban government’s tactics of fear and pressure would not succeed in silencing the voices speaking up for freedom. And that freedom and justice would become reality for all.
Amen.