A large crowd of Cuban Americans and supporters – according to Univisión, in the thousands – gathered on Sunday in Miami, Florida’s Bayside Park for a unique event to pray for divine intervention to end communism in Cuba.
The event, titled “United For a Free Cuba,” was organized by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), a coalition of dissident groups on and off the island who advocate for respect for human rights and democracy. It was a continuation of a prayer campaign titled “Save Cuba,” which was launched in January to unite people of faith around the world in prayer for an end to the 67 years of communist repression, poverty, and brutality that those on the island have suffered.
The event featured a variety of faith leaders as well as human rights activists, visual artists, musicians, and political leaders. The focus of the event, as organizers and participants detailed, was unique in the history of anti-communist Cuban activism in that it was explicitly a prayer event, focused on calling for God’s help rather than on politicians or other human actors.
“We are asking God to empower the Cuban people for the final change, for the liberation of Cuba,” Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, the coordinator of ARC and a Breitbart News contributor, said of the event. “We are doing this in tune with our brothers and sisters in Cuba, who are praying, and with various countries in Latin America.”
The presence of a long list of high-profile members of the Cuban exile community, many of whom have openly disagreed on many political issues at home – from outspoken Trump 2024 supporter and popular YouTube personality Alexander Otaola to Democrat-friendly radio host Enrique Santos – also reflected a unity in purpose at the event independent of any domestic political concerns.
In addition to those hosts, among those in attendance were Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), several members of the Swedish parliament, longtime Cuba freedom activist Rosa María Payá, and former political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer, who the head of the largest dissident organization on the island, the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU).
Speaking to Univisión, Ferrer described the rain over Bayfront Park during the event as a “divine blessing” and explained the need for a religious, largely Christian, act for Cuba.
“The communist regime, since its arrival to power, wanted to strip God out of the hearts and minds of the Cuban people and the Cuban people resisted so much,” he explained. “If, for communism, atheism is fundamental, for a healthy and believing people – a people who want to live with freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights – faith in God is fundamental.”
Addressing the crowd, Father Alberto Gutiérrez called for “true change” on the island.
“We want Cuba to change, but to change truly,” he explained. “The time for dialogue is over. You know why? Because unfortunately, this dictatorship, as well as many other dictatorships, does not know how to dialogue. It wants to impose its ideology. It wants to oppress and repress. It wants to keep its political prisoners.”
Unconfirmed reports have for months suggested that the Castro dynasty has attempted to establish talks with the government of President Donald Trump to secure its future following the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, a longtime benefactor of the Cuban Communist Party. Cuban officials have since confirmed some form of communication with Washington, but the extent and nature of these communications remains unclear at press time.
The event in Florida was accompanied by prayers for Cuba worldwide. Gutiérrez-Boronat explained to the independent outlet Cubanet on Sunday that ARC member groups and others had committed to engaging in prayers simultaneously with those across the Florida Straits.
“The most important thing, there are already Cubans on the island that are praying to save Cuba. We have a unity of purpose, we have the faith in God to be able to reach the end of the dictatorship and construct a new nation,” Gutiérrez-Boronat explained.
On his YouTube channel dedicated to Christian worship, Cuban pastor Rolando Pérez Lora, who was arrested in March for reading Bible verses on the internet, offered his own prayers for the wellbeing of all involved in the event and for the liberation of his country.
“When the people of Israel exclaimed for a liberator, exclaimed for leaving the slavery of the pharaoh, God truly listened and sent a Moses,” the pastor stated. “In these times, we do not wait for a man – we wait that the manifestation of the glory of Christ fill this island with a united body, as one man. Not a man as in one person, but all united as if one person, united the way the human organism is united. Bones of our bones and flesh of our flesh.”
The “Save Cuba” prayer campaign was launched in January, organized “so that the family of Cuba can come to Christ’s feet.” The campaign is a radical defiance of the Cuban Communist Party as it has, for over half a century, violently persecuted Christians, as well as Cubans of other faiths such as the national Yoruba or santería religion. Cuba was a majority Catholic nation when late mass murderer Fidel Castro staged his coup in 1959 and Cubans around the world remain a majority Christian people. On the island, Catholic leaders at the parish level regularly support the people by joining protests against communism and praying for freedom, often at the cost of their own freedom and wellbeing.
The global human rights organization Open Doors ranked Cuba number 26 in its most recent edition of the World Watch List, which ranks the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. The ranking is higher – meaning Cuba is more repressive and dangerous for Christians – than countries such as Qatar, Mozambique, Turkey, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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