Havana, Cuba — October 1, 2026. Evangelical pastor Rolando Fidel Pérez Lora, known as “Pregonero de Cristo” (Christ’s Herald), was arrested by State Security and National Revolutionary Police agents while on his way to the Municipal People’s Court of Havana del Este, in Cojímar, to accompany activist Anna Bensi and her mother on the day of their trial.
The arrest was caught on camera. The footage shows several officers surrounding the pastor, throwing him to the ground and handcuffing him before putting him into a police vehicle, while a plainclothes agent tries to stop the scene from being recorded.
The worst part: nobody told him why
Despite his repeated questions, no explanation was given at the scene. The answer heard in the recording is as brief as it is telling: “you’ll find out at the station.” According to the complaint published alongside the footage, no arrest warrant was ever shown.
The pastor himself says it as he is taken away: “Am I under arrest? Record this — they’re arresting me.”
The questions that demand answers
- On what legal grounds was Rolando Pérez Lora detained?
- Why was he not told the reason at the scene?
- Was there any warrant or legal order supporting the procedure?
This was not an isolated case
A wider operation was deployed around the trial that same day: the pastor and his wife, Baptist leader David Espinosa and his wife, journalist Camila Acosta — who reported seven or eight agents outside her home — Yoani Sánchez, prevented from leaving her house, and members of the “Fuera de la Caja” project, confined indoors. Pérez Lora had already been detained in March and July 2026.
At the end of the hearing, Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente and her mother, Caridad Silvente, were sentenced to two years of restricted liberty — not imprisonment — for alleged acts against personal and family privacy under Article 393 of the Penal Code. The case began when the two recorded an Interior Ministry agent who came to their home with a summons. “There will never be a fair trial while we are governed by a state of injustice,” Bensi said.
At the time of publication, the pastor’s situation was unknown, including whether he had been released.
Documenting is preserving memory
The Anti-Communist Movement and Defenders of Liberty publicly denounces these events and demands they be clarified. Accompanying someone to a courthouse is not a crime. Nor is asking why you are being arrested.
The video stands as testimony. Let it be seen, let it be heard, let it be documented.
Video: footage released by journalist Yoe Suárez and published by MADL. Coverage: CiberCuba, Cubanos por el Mundo and Periódico Cubano. Original post.
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