SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (BP) — Evangelical Protestant pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo is among hundreds of prisoners, including several religious leaders, Cuba released last week after the U.S. removed the island nation from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Cuba released Fajardo Jan. 17 from Mar Verde Prison in Santiago de Cuba, international religious freedom advocate Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said upon his release, after President Biden’s 11th hour announcement that he would remove Cuba from the list.

Fajardo, pastor of Monte de Sion Independent Church, had been wrongfully imprisoned since July 2021, isolated from family and reportedly tortured for participating in widespread peaceful protests criticizing the government’s human rights violations, food shortages and the lack of medical supplies.

Several organizations, including the multi-denominational Alliance of Christians of Cuba, a group of 60 Christian leaders, had advocated for Fajardo’s release.

The pastor is among 553 prisoners Cuba announced it will release over time as a gesture of goodwill in response to Biden’s declaration, and also in recognition of the Catholic Church Jubilee, a year dedicated to mercy and forgiveness. But Biden’s move aimed at normalizing relations with Cuba and improving the island’s economy is expected to be overturned during incoming President Donald Trump’s administration, the New York Times reported.

Trump’s choice for secretary of state, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, is expected to adopt a hardline stance against the country his family fled before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. While President Barack Obama sought to normalize relations with Cuba, Trump added Cuba to the list days before his first term ended on Jan. 12, 2021, according to the U.S. State Department.

In advance of releasing Fajardo, Cuba released Afro-Cuban Yoruba leader Donaida Pérez Paseiro from prison, but still imprisons her husband, Yoruba leader Loreto Hernández García, CSW Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said in urging Cuba to release Garcia and others.

Neither Fajardo nor the Yoruba leaders “should ever have spent a day in detention in the first place,” Stangl said. “They have endured abusive treatment and been forcibly separated from their spouses and children since July 2021. We call on the Cuban government to immediately release Loreto Hernández García, and to ensure that Pastor Rosales Fajardo and all political prisoners and their families … enjoy their freedom without any further harassment.”

With Cuba removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, only Syria, designated in 1979; Iran, added in 1984; and North Korea, designated in 2017, remain on the list, according to the U.S. State Department.

Communist Cuba is mostly Catholic, amounting to about 60% of its 11 million people. With no authoritative source for the religious demography of Cuba, the U.S. State Department cites estimates from various sources in its 2024 report that about 5% of Cuba’s population (550,000) are Protestant, including 100,000 Baptists,150,000 Assemblies of God members and other groups including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Methodists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Presbyterians, Anglicans and others.

Several groups incorporate Catholic rites and beliefs.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)