The Cuban priest Castor José Álvarez Devesa was blocked this Friday at the Antonio Maceo y Grajales International Airport in Santiago de Cuba while attempting to board a flight to Miami, where he was invited to the episcopal ordination of a Cuban-American.
The regime informed him of the measure at the terminal itself, just as he was about to board, that he was prohibited from leaving the country.
El Padre Castor reported what happened in a video recorded at the airport and posted on his social media, where he recounted with calmness and firmness: “God is love. I wanted to inform all friends who were at the airport to fly to Miami, invited to the episcopal ordination of a Cuban American, Monsignor Biosca. However, I was informed that I cannot leave the country; I have a travel ban. I was about to board the flight, and they prevented me from doing so.”
The priest, parish priest of the Modelo neighborhood in Camagüey, was scheduled to attend the consecration of Monsignor Emilio Biosca Agüero, a Cuban-American Capuchin Franciscan appointed by Pope Leo XIV as the new bishop of the Diocese of Venice, Florida. The ceremony is set to take place this Saturday at the Catholic Center in Venice.
What angered Father Castor the most was not just the ban, but the way it was enforced: without prior notice and with the ticket already purchased by his friends.
"It's unfortunate that they didn't even notify me and I had to come; the friends booked the ticket, and I found out right here. However, what's worse is that I cannot leave my country freely," he stated.
Far from breaking down, the priest turned to his faith to frame what had happened: "May God be with us; we trust that Christ is the Messiah, and they crucified Him, placed a crown of thorns on His head, so it happens to us as well."
Castor closed his message from the airport with a call that summarizes his stance against the dictatorship: "I hope that one day we Cubans will have freedom on our Island, and I hope it will be soon, that we can score a goal in the World Cup and be free."
This episode is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a systematic pattern of harassment by the regime against Father Castor.
In January, the State Security summoned him along with Priest Alberto Reyes Pías to issue a "warning" due to their criticisms of the government. Father Reyes then confirmed that the objective was "to create a record of warning regarding our public stances on the system, which they claimed could constitute, according to them, punishable offenses under the law."
Previously, on July 11, 2021, the priest was detained and beaten with a bat by the police while trying to protect a 14-year-old teenager during the 11J protests in Camagüey. The date of Biosca's ordination symbolically coincides with the fifth anniversary of that repression.
The legal framework supporting these restrictions has also tightened.
The regime published in May the new Immigration Law - Law 171 - which establishes ten grounds for prohibiting exit from the country, including the vague notions of "national security" and "public interest," which can be applied with total discretion against dissenting voices.
The organization Cubalex has warned that these regulations consolidate a system of discretionary control over the mobility of Cubans.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights reported at least 873 violations of religious freedom in Cuba during 2025, a figure that reflects the repressive escalation of the regime against the Catholic Church and other denominations.
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