A Protestant pastor in Cuba has been detained and charged with disobedience after authorities prevented him from holding a public prayer gathering, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a UK-based religious freedom organisation.
Maikel Pupo Velázquez is being held at La Cerámica Roja Prison near Camagüey City, in eastern Cuba. CSW reported that state security officers arrested him on 26 September and held him at their local headquarters for nine days without allowing him to contact anyone outside before transferring him to prison.
The organisation described his detention as arbitrary and called for his immediate release.
Pupo Velázquez leads the Sacred Blessing Word of Fire Church, an unregistered Protestant congregation.
According to information provided to CSW, government officials summoned the pastor on 25 September and ordered him not to go to Cándido Gonzalez Morales Stadium, where the prayer gathering was due to take place. He was warned that he could be imprisoned if people assembled at the venue.
The pastor reportedly attended the meeting with officials and cancelled the event as instructed. However, concerned that some young people had not received the news, he later went to the stadium to tell them to leave.
Officers from the Department of State Security's Technical Investigations Department arrived on a motorcycle and arrested him near the stadium gates.
CSW said his arrest appeared to be linked to his efforts to organise the gathering, despite his decision to comply with the authorities' order.
His wife was not informed of his arrest. She reportedly learnt of his detention only after the pastor's stepfather went to the place where he was being held.
Pupo Velázquez had previously been detained in July 2025 after attempting to deliver medicine and other essential supplies to relatives of two political prisoners.
His detention has also raised concerns about his family situation. Relatives have reported that his 16-year-old daughter is receiving treatment in the heart ward of Eduardo Agramonte Piña Paediatric Hospital.
Anna Lee Stangl, CSW's director of advocacy and head of its Americas team, called on Cuban authorities to release the pastor and withdraw the charges against him.
She said the pastor had cancelled the planned gathering in response to the government's instructions and questioned the justification for holding him simply for encouraging fellow Christians to pray for Cuba.
Stangl also criticised the authorities for preventing him from communicating with his wife while their daughter was in hospital. CSW urged the international community to press the Cuban government to release him and end the legal proceedings against him.
The case follows the imprisonment of another young person from a Protestant family in Cuba.
Jonathan David Muir Burgos, whose parents are both Protestant pastors, was released in June after spending more than three months in an adult maximum-security prison.
Jonathan, who was 16 at the time, was arrested on 16 March alongside his father, Evangelical pastor Elier Muir Avila, following their involvement in protests. Both men had responded to a police summons. The father was allowed to return home that day, but Jonathan faced a sabotage charge, which carries a possible prison sentence of up to 15 years.
His family alleged that he experienced physical and psychological abuse while held at Canaleta Prison. His mother, Minervina Burgos Lopez, said prison authorities failed to provide adequate treatment for his dyshidrosis, a skin condition. She also reported that he developed bacterial infections, malnutrition, depression and episodes of fainting.
The detention of Pupo Velázquez has renewed concerns among religious freedom advocates about the treatment of Protestant Christians and their families in Cuba.
This report is based on information published by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and The Christian Post. The article has been rewritten for this publication.
