Christian activists in Cuba launched a campaign on Monday titled Salvar a Cuba (“To Save Cuba”), calling for nationwide prayers “so that the family of Cuba can come to Christ’s feet.”
The To Save Cuba campaign, following a conference of the same name intended to plan a post-communist future for the island in September, arrives at a time of renewed hope among many in the Cuban diaspora following President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the Communist Party. Trump approved an operation to arrest Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, a key client of the Castro regime, on January 3, and has subsequently announced that what is left of the socialist chavista regime will no longer subsidize communist Cuba with free oil. Cubans on the island have also grown increasingly politically active, setting records for number of protest actions in several months of 2025.
In a video shared by the Assembly for the Cuban Resistance, participants in the To Save Cuba prayer initiative share their aspirations for the program, including creating a future for Cuban youth and rekindling Christianity on the island after 67 years of communist repression of the faith. The Assembly described the goal of the program in a press release as “to united and uplift the spiritual power of the Cuban nation for a new chapter in the history of Cuba.”
“To save Cuba so that all division caused by any manmade system be broken, be canceled, so that unity prevails in the body of Christ, so that faith can unite us more to unite this country,” one participant expresses in the video.
Another describes his hopes for the prayers as the saving of the country “so that families can know the Lord, so that all pain be taken away; for the restoration, peace, and unity in the family, so that there not be any destruction and we convoke unity in prayer so that the family of Cuba can be saved, can come to Christ’s feet.”
Participating in the initiative and appearing in the video is Father Castor José Álvarez Devesa of Camagüey, a known dissident in the country that participated in the July 11, 2021, protests and was beaten and temporarily disappeared into the Cuban state security apparatus for that effort. Father Álvarez explains in the video that he is joining in prayer “to save Cuba from division, evil, and we want to save the Cuban family.”
The call to national prayer is not without risk, as Cuba is one of the most dangerous places on earth to practice Christianity. The Communist Party is explicitly atheist and closely regulates any religious activity, regularly beating and imprisoning people of faith that do not closely adhere to communist ideology. The global human rights organization Open Doors ranked Cuba number 26 on the 2025 edition of its World Watch List, which ranks the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian.
“Since 1959, Cuba has been ruled by the Communist Party, which tries to control the church. The government reacts harshly to anyone who opposes it,” Open Doors explained at the time. “Church leaders and Christian activists who criticise the regime can face interrogation, arrest and imprisonment. They also suffer smear campaigns, travel restrictions, and harassment (which can include physical violence and damage to church buildings).”
The ranking of number 26 makes Cuba more dangerous for Christians than countries such as Qatar, Mozambique, Turkey, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Video Source: Chad Sexton via Storyful
Cuba has been a majority Christian country since its establishment as a Spanish colony and subsequent liberation by its Christian founding fathers in 1902. Since the coup d’etat that placed Fidel Castro in power, the Communist Party has enthusiastically persecuted Christians, primarily the majority Catholic population and the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists, who were forced into labor camps.
The persecution did not succeed in stripping the Cuban population of its Christian identity; priests were among the fighters who deployed in the April 17, 1961, effort to overthrow Castro, betrayed by leftist President John F. Kennedy. Their legacy lives today in clergymen such as Father Álvarez and others regularly brutalized by the regime on the island.
President Trump inspired hope, and concerns among the left, that his administration would work to disempower the Castro regime in remarks he published on his website, Truth Social, on Sunday.
“Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!” Trump announced. “Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last weeks U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.”
The Cuban communist regime confirmed the deaths of 32 state security thugs during the operation to detain Maduro, exposing the reality of Cuban military conquest of Venezuela.
“Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” the president added. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
The Communist Party leadership has at press time rejected any such deal. Puppet “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is subordinate to dictator Raúl Castro, emphasized on Monday that Cuba does not have any dialogue ongoing with the United States outside of procedural matters related to migrants. Díaz-Canel also claimed Cuba would fight “to the last drop of blood” against the United States, though he did not specify if his blood or that of his cronies would be among the spilled.
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