As I mentioned in question, I was running the command like this:
redis-cli -h hostname -p 6379 -a mypassword
The correct way to connect into a ElastiCache cluster through stunnel should be using "localhost" as the host address,like this:
redis-cli -h localhost -p 6379 -a mypassword
There is explanation for using the localhost address:
when you create a tunnel between your bastion server and the ElastiCache host through stunnel, the program will start a service that listen to a local TCP port (6379), encapsulate the communication using the SSL protocol and transfer the data between the local server and the remote host.
you need to start the stunnel, check if the service is listening on the localhost address (127.0.0.1), and connect using the "localhost" as the destination address: "
Start stunnel. (Make sure you have installed stunnel using this link https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/elasticache-connect-redis-node/)
$ sudo stunnel /etc/stunnel/redis-cli.conf
Use the netstat command to confirm that the tunnels have started:
$ netstat -tulnp | grep -i stunnel
You can now use the redis-cli to connect to the encrypted Redis node using the local endpoint of the tunnel:
$redis-cli -h localhost -p 6379 -a MySecretPassword
localhost:6379>set foo "bar"
OK
localhost:6379>get foo
"bar"