Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: May 31, 2025
We recently received an update from the exiled Cuban pastor, Alain Toledano Valiente.
If you’ve been supporting CSW for a while, you may already know that Pastor Toledano Valiente has been a target of the Cuban government for over 20 years. This is because of his leadership in the Apostolic Movement – a charismatic Protestant Christian network which the government has refused to register.
Then in the summer of 2022, the pastor was given an ultimatum: 30 days to leave the country or face the possibility of prison.
Confronted with this impossible decision, Pastor Toledano Valiente chose exile. He fled with his wife and two younger daughters and was granted emergency parole in the United States. However, his two older daughters were not eligible to go with them because they were adults.
Now the Cuban government has refused to allow Pastor Toledano Valiente to return to Cuba to be with his daughter Susana, who is battling advanced breast cancer.
She was diagnosed in August 2022, the month after her parents were exiled. She has had numerous operations and treatments without them by her side, and so far nothing has been able to stop the cancer’s advance. Like many in Cuba, Susana’s condition has been exacerbated by chronic shortages of medicine across the island.
In an emotional video shared on Facebook, Pastor Toledano Valiente said:
‘I want this message to get to all of those in seats of power in Cuba. You must stop playing politics, you must stop playing with the lives of Cubans and with the rights of Cubans… I demand my rights… to enter my country and to be with my family…’
Please pray:
- For miraculous healing in Susana’s body, as well as emotional strength for the whole family.
- That Pastor Toledano Valiente will be allowed to return to Cuba to support his daughter during this difficult time and that she might be granted an emergency humanitarian visa to receive appropriate medical treatment outside the country.
- That the Cuban government would find their sense of humanity and be moved to act with compassion. Pray specifically for President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez and Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas (Minister of the Interior). The no-entry order against Pastor Toledano Valiente was issued by Cuba’s Department of State Security, which is under the Ministry of the Interior.