My mother, born in the 1960s, spent a large part of her childhood and adolescence on scholarship at a “School in the Countryside“ within the centralized Castroist educational system.

Separated from her parents for most of the year, she remained under the indoctrinating tutelage of teachers trained in the Soviet Union — individuals who spoke of conquering the cosmos and mocking God. Meanwhile, amidst conditions ranging from unsanitary bathrooms to a lack of potable water for days on end, the children were compelled to perform agricultural labor.

It is not merely that, from a young age, totalitarianism dispatched generations of minors to fruit, flowers, and vegetable plantations to exploit them for hours on end as slave labor. Nor is it simply that, through those prolonged periods away from home, they sought to undermine the influence of the family unit. Least of all is it just that religious faith was frowned upon in such places.

The point is that, today, Cuban children continue to suffer under an unjust State — one that punishes their parents, and at times the children themselves, for attempting to exercise the most basic of freedoms.

I am the father of two boys, both under the age of seven, and I cannot bear to imagine the horror of them being punished for their faith — or, later in life, for acting as responsible citizens guided by it.

Evangelical pastor Elier Muir is living through this very nightmare right now. His youngest son, 16-year-old Jonathan Muir, remains in detention, accused of participating in the intense protests of this “Spring of Fire” in the city of Morón on March 14.

Initially, the family went for hours without any information regarding his whereabouts. They were particularly concerned about the teenager’s delicate health condition, as he suffers from a skin ailment. Today, he is facing prosecution and has been threatened with charges to be pressed “with the full weight of the law.” In addition to children, other Cubans in their adolescence are suffering for expressing their desire for a Cuba free of socialism and at the feet of Christ.

Influencer and singer Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente — known on social media as Anna Bensi — has faced intense pressure directed at both herself and her family. This pressure has ranged from hours of interrogation at police stations in Havana — intended to intimidate her and psychologically destabilize her — to threats of imprisonment and even baseless rumors regarding her sexuality.

She is only 21 years old, yet she has long had to contend with similar attacks. She and her mother, Caridad Silvente, spent a month under house arrest; meanwhile, her sister, Elmis Rivero Silvente — a U.S. citizen — was interrogated by the political police during a visit to the island last April.

Of the same age, Iván Daniel Calás was forced into exile in late March after enduring threats, pressure, and warnings for publicly denouncing the situation in Cuba.

At age 17, he began gaining recognition on social media through Christ-centered messages; however, around 2020 — after we met and worked together on several audiovisual projects — his content began to address political themes with increasing frequency.

Together with other young evangelicals, these two individuals emerged between 2025 and 2026 as the most far-reaching independent political voices within the island. It is this influence — which is far from trivial and highlights the lack of religious and expressive freedoms — that the socialist regime fears.

The children of those Cuban Christians who seek to remain faithful to their beliefs — and refuse to remain silent in the face of injustice — suffer as well.

Such suffering came knocking at the door of Ernesto Ricardo Medina‘s daughter last February. Agents from the Ministry of the Interior arrested him at his apartment in Holguín, alongside Kamil Zayas Pérez; both men are members of the social media platform El4tico, which boasts tens of thousands of followers.

They were charged with the alleged crimes of “propaganda against the constitutional order” and “incitement to commit a crime.”

Ricardo Medina grew up in the evangelical faith and regularly incorporates Christian messages into the space where he records his videos — content that is critical of the socialist system. He lives with his wife and their young daughter, Emma, who is 3 years old.

The little girl witnessed her father being handcuffed in the early hours of the morning and taken into custody, while authorities seized equipment and searched their home.

Emma constantly asks about her father. Her mother has had to invent a story for her —claiming that the police took Ricardo Medina out to attend to some business matters.

“The hardest part has been facing, alongside Emma, the emptiness in the house — knowing that our family is not whole, and not knowing what to tell the child when she asks about her dad. What am I supposed to tell her? That he is in prison for expressing himself freely?” she recounted weeks ago.

In that same interview, she stated — with faith — “God does not punish the righteous.” It remains for us, here on this earth, not to abandon the righteous man who suffers.

A month later, Pastor Rolando Pérez Lora — a critic of the regime — was arrested in the city of Matanzas after reading verses from the New Testament during a YouTube broadcast.

The arrest took place as he was leaving for church to officiate a religious service. Police officers were waiting for him outside his home. The arrest occurred in front of his two children, both minors. In the video that subsequently circulated, their faces reflected a mixture of shock and horror as uniformed officers forced Pérez Lora into a patrol car.

Several hours passed before they learned of their father’s whereabouts — hours that elapsed before he was finally released.

Around that same time in Havana, the two minor daughters of independent evangelical journalist Yunia Figueredo also witnessed police officers storming into their home, knocking their mother’s phone to the floor, and shoving her into a patrol car.

Hours earlier, Figueredo had initiated a “cacerolazo” — a pot-banging protest — alongside other neighbors to protest the brutal energy crisis gripping the country: a crisis marked by prolonged blackouts that compound existing shortages of food, political repression, and the absence of basic services.

However, such cases are nothing new. In 2021, in the wake of the massive protests that swept the country on July 11 and 12, the daughter of Nadir Perdomo — a political prisoner from a Christian family — recorded a video pleading, with tears streaming down her face, for the return of her father, who had been imprisoned for shouting the word “Freedom” in the streets.

This article is based on testimony submitted for the record of the USCIRF hearing on religious freedom violations against children (April 2026). Also, it is part of the Campaign FIN DEL ACOSO Y LIBERTAD PARA LAS VOCES DE LA VERDAD EN CUBA, by the platform for political communication LITORAL.