Cuban pastor’s teenage son freed after months in prison
A Cuban teenager whose parents are Protestant pastors and who spent more than three months in a maximum-security adult prison has been released. He returned home under restrictions that ban him from making in-person public statements, according to a rights group.
Jonathan David Muir Burgos, who turned 17 on May 28, was released on Wednesday, according to the U.K.-based advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He was 16 years old when Cuban authorities arrested him alongside his father, Evangelical Pastor Elier Muir Avila, on March 16, after they participated in protests.
The terms of Jonathan’s release have not been fully disclosed by his family, but CSW said the arrangement appears consistent with house arrest under Article 36 of the Cuban Penal Code, known in Spanish as Reclucion Domiciliaria, a provision commonly used as an alternative to imprisonment or as a modification of a sentence.
The ban on in-person public statements was among the conditions imposed.
Jonathan and his father submitted to their arrests voluntarily after receiving a police summons. Authorities released Pastor Muir Avila the same day and held Jonathan separately, charging him with sabotage, an offense that carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Authorities transferred Jonathan to the Canaleta maximum-security adult prison, where his family said he endured psychological and physical torture. His mother, Pastor Minervina Burgos Lopez, reported that he was denied adequate medical care for dyshidrosis, a skin condition, and that he developed streptococcal and staphylococcal bacterial infections.
Jonathan also suffered malnutrition from a minimal diet, vasovagal episodes, a form of fainting triggered by the nervous system, depression, and severe disorientation. He was also unable to sleep due to bedbug bites.
While Jonathan was held, the Cuban government circulated a photograph of him playing the piano. His family called the image staged propaganda intended to conceal his deteriorating physical condition.
His father told CSW that the imprisonment violated Jonathan’s ability to practice his faith. And Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience.
Jonathan’s arrest was connected not only to his participation in protests but also to his family’s religious work.
His father leads Tiempo de Cosecha, an independent Protestant congregation operating outside Cuba’s state-recognized religious system, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which called Jonathan’s detention “an attempt at coercion by proxy.”
In 2024, the Cuban Communist Party’s Office of Religious Affairs sent government officials and religious leaders to warn Pastor Muir Avila that only Communist Party-approved churches could operate and only state-recognized pastors could minister.
Cuba requires all religious organizations to obtain government authorization; groups that operate without it face surveillance, warnings and restrictions.
Jonathan was arrested during a wave of protests that followed several nights of nationwide power outages and severe food and medicine shortages. His hometown of Morón saw seven consecutive nights of blackouts that month. Demonstrators gathered there and in other locations.
In Morón, protesters ransacked and set fire to Cuban Communist Party offices. One protester was reportedly shot during the unrest. Authorities cut internet access in the city and surrounding areas as the demonstrations continued.
After the protests, police carried out summonses, raids and arrests targeting young people and minors in Morón, according to the Cuban news outlet CiberCuba.
Jonathan was interrogated about his presence at the demonstrations, including whether he called for freedom during the protests.
CSW President Mervyn Thomas called on the international community to condemn Cuba’s treatment of peaceful protesters, particularly minors, and to hold those responsible to account.
The independent Cuban legal advisory group Cubalex documented 242 repressive events and 528 separate incidents of harassment falling into 44 categories of state repression in February, affecting 190 people, including 46 women and 144 men.
Havana recorded the highest number of incidents that month, followed by Ciego de Avila, the province where Morón is located, and Santiago de Cuba.
The most common abuses involved violations against prisoners, violence or harassment, transfers between detention facilities, police surveillance, threats, and arbitrary detentions.