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The head of the diplomatic mission of United States in Cuba, Mike Hammer, met last Thursday with the evangelical pastor Rolando Pérez Lora, known as the "Herald of Christ," and publicly denounced his detention by the Cuban political police for praying in a public space.
The message from Hammer was posted on the Facebook account of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba along with a photograph of the meeting: "It was a pleasure to meet Pastor Rolando Pérez Lora, known as the 'Herald of Christ'. He shared with me his experience of being detained in front of his wife and children simply for praying in public."
Pastor Pérez Lora was detained on March 15 in a park in Peñas Altas, Matanzas, one of the few places in the area with access to public wifi, where he recorded weekly biblical teaching videos for his YouTube channel.
The arrest occurred almost immediately after he uploaded one of those videos to the platform, reported Christian Post.
His wife, Gelayne Rodríguez Ávila, documented the arrest on video and shared it on social media.
The images show agents pushing the pastor into a police vehicle while his children cried. "We were filming a video in the park, and they took Pastor Rolando because he uploaded a video reading the Bible to his YouTube channel," the woman stated in the recording.
Pérez Lora was released about three hours later, left several kilometers away from his church.
The organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) condemned the arrest the following day, noting that the pastor was attacked for publicly sharing his faith.
The "Herald of Christ" was ordained in 2011 and has since been a systematic target of the Cuban authorities due to his street ministry, which includes preaching and praying in public spaces, an activity that the regime views as a threat to public order.
Hammer's visit to Pastor Pérez Lora is part of an active agenda of meetings with religious leaders and activists that the diplomat has maintained throughout 2026: he recently visited the Alliance of Evangelical Churches of Cuba, also received a standing ovation at the church of the Virgin of Regla, and in February, he met with the Bishop of Camagüey.
The meeting takes place just a few days after Hammer visited the content creator Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known as Anna Bensi, who has been under house arrest since March 25, when State Security brought charges against her and her mother.
This "street diplomacy" has generated tensions with the regime, which has organized acts of repudiation and arrested Cubans for inviting the diplomat to their communities.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) classified Cuba in 2026 as a country with "serious and ongoing" violations of religious freedom, in a context where more than 80% of evangelical congregations on the island lack legal recognition from the State.
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