"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Cuban artist and musician Maykel Castillo Pérez turned 39 years old today in a Cuban prison. He was born on August 20, 1983.
Cuban prisoner of conscience Maykel Castillo Pérez “Osorbo” was sentenced to nine yearsin prison by the Castro regime on June 24, 2022. He was already arbitrarily detained for over a year at the time.
Amnesty International offered the following background information on this prisoner of conscience on August 19, 2021.
"Maykel Castillo Pérez,known by his stage name Maykel Osorbo, is a Cuban musician and human rights activist. He is one of the authors of “Patria y Vida”, a song critical of the Cuban government that has been adopted as a protest anthem. On 4 April 2021, Maykel was walking in Havana when police officers questioned him and attempted to arrest him but desisted in the face of complaints from other passersby who considered the action unjust."
Eight days later on April 12, 2021 Maykel was the victim of a physical assault engineered by the secret police. Maykel was assaulted in Havana by strangers as state security agents filmed the assault. Maykel Castillo denounced the incident on a live broadcast through Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara's social media where Maykel stated, "I'm a tough black," he said."Not
even a thousand beatings are going to make me cross my arms and close
my mouth," he warned. He underscored the danger facing him, and the
possible escalation of violence by the dictatorship, and his commitment
to nonviolence. “If you break a bone, it stays broken.If I die for that, the fault will be yours, because you are a murderer, " he said, addressing the government.
"On 18 May [2021], security agents arrived at his home and arrested him. He is being held at the Pinar del Río Provincial Prison under charges of 'assault', 'resistance', 'evasion of prisoners and detainees' and 'public disorder.'"
Maykel Castillo in the midst of a protest in San Isidro on April 4, 2021
This is not his first time he was jailed for a matter of conscience. On September 21, 2018 Cuban rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez, "El Osorbo" protested against Decree 349/2018 during a show in Cuba. Three days after the concert, he was detained by the Cuban secret police, and kept jailed.
"Any person who is
physically restrained (by imprisonment or otherwise) from expressing (in
any form of words or symbols) any opinion which he honestly holds and
which does not advocate or condone personal violence." - Peter Benenson, Appeal for Amnesty, 1961
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a prisoner of conscience
Including Luis Manuel there are currently seven prisoners of conscience in Cuba recognized by Amnesty International. The other current prisoners of conscience are Josiel Guía Piloto, Silverio Portal Contreras, Mitzael Díaz Paseiro, Eliecer Bandera Barrera, Edilberto Ronal Arzuaga Alcalá, and Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces. Over the past six decades there have been tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience.
Cuba: Amnesty International calls for release of artist and prisoner of conscience
Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a prisoner of
conscience, imprisoned solely because of his consciously held beliefs,
and should be released immediately, said Amnesty International today. A
key leader in the movement opposing Decree 349, a dystopian law
that stands to censor artists, he is detained and awaiting a trial that
was initially expected on 11 March, but has since been delayed.
“It is absolutely shameful that the Cuban administration continues to
stifle any voices that are not aligned with the official position. Luis
Manuel Otero is a prisoner of conscience and we urge the Cuban
government to release him immediately and unconditionally” said Erika
Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.
According to the information Amnesty International has obtained, Luis
Manuel Otero Alcántara appears to be charged with “insults to symbols
of the homeland” (Article 203 of the Penal Code), an offense
inconsistent with international human rights law and standards, and
“damage” to property (Article 339).
According to NGO Cubalex,
in the past 30 months, authorities have arbitrarily detained Luis
Manuel more than 20 times. Prior to his detention, he had announced on
Facebook that he planned to participate in a protest convened by LGBTI
activists after alleged state censorship of a movie featuring two men
kissing.
It is absolutely shameful that the Cuban administration continues to
stifle any voices that are not aligned with the official position. Luis
Manuel Otero is a prisoner of conscience and we urge the Cuban
government to release him immediately and unconditionally
- Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International
In an interview with Amnesty International in 2019, Luis Manuel said:
“I’m like the tip of the iceberg. We are talking about an endless
number of artists in Cuba. [The authorities] come after me, because as I
am supposedly the most visible of the youth, activists-artists, they
send the message ‘Well, if we lock this one up, look what we can do to
you lot.’”
Cuba is the only country in the Americas that prohibits Amnesty International from visiting.
The organization asks all artists, journalists and LGBTI activists to
call on the Cuban authorities to immediately and unconditionally
release Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
Background information
Under Decree 349, all artists, including collectives, musicians and
performers, are prohibited from operating in public or private spaces
without prior approval by the Ministry of Culture. Individuals or
businesses that hire artists without the authorization can be
sanctioned, and artists that work without prior approval can have their
materials confiscated or be substantially fined. Under the new decree,
the authorities also have the power to immediately suspend a performance
and to propose the cancelation of the authorization granted to carry
out the artistic activity. Such decisions can only be appealed before
the same Ministry of Culture (Article 10); the decree does not provide
an effective remedy to appeal such a decision before an independent
body, including through the courts.
The decree contains vague and overly broad restrictions on artistic
expression. For example, it prohibits audiovisual materials that
contain, among other things: “use of patriotic symbols that contravene
current legislation” (Article 3a), “sexist, vulgar or obscene language”
(Article 3d), and “any other (content) that violates the legal
provisions that regulate the normal development of our society in
cultural matters” (Article 3g). Furthermore, it makes it an offence to
“commercialize books with content harmful to ethical and cultural
values” (Article 4f).
International human rights law and standards require that any
restriction to the right to freedom of expression, including through
art, must be provided by law and formulated with sufficient precision to
avoid overly broad or arbitrary interpretation or application, and in a
manner that is accessible to the public and that clearly outlines what
conduct is or is not prohibited.
As signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), Cuba is required to refrain from acts that would defeat
the object and purpose of the treaty. Article 19 of the ICCPR
specifically protects the right to freedom of expression, which includes
the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all
kinds…” including “in the form of art”.
Amnesty International has previously expressed concern
that Decree 349 is likely to have a general chilling effect on artists
in Cuba, preventing them from carrying out their legitimate work for
fear of reprisals.
Article 203 of the Penal Code, one of the provisions under which Luis
Manuel appears to be charged, is inconsistent with international
standards as its effect is to limit freedom of expression. Amnesty
International opposes laws prohibiting disrespect of heads of state or
public figures, the military or other public institutions, or flags or
symbols (such as lèse majesté and desacato laws).
International attention has justifiably focused on the plight of human rights defender Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, and the recent show trial he and three other dissidents were subjected to, but there are over 125 identified political prisoners, and Amnesty International recognized six new Cuban prisoners of conscience in August and September of 2019.
Sadly, prisoners of conscience have existed over the six decades of the Castro regime. One of these new prisoners of conscience, Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Hace, an independent journalist and attorney smuggles a letter out of prison revealing that during an earthquake on January 28, 2020 prisoners were kept in their cells rather than taken out to an open space, that would have been safer under the circumstances.
Human rights defenders, and independent journalists are not the only targets of repression in Cuba. Artists have also been cracked down on by officials of the dictatorship.
Decree 349, a 2018 law that criminalizes all independent cultural activity in Cuba, gives regime authorities total control over artistic production and ensures that individual artists can no longer be independent.
This provoked protests by independent artists. Many were arbitrarily detained, and at least two were jailed for a prolonged period. Rapper Maikel Castillo Pérez in September of 2018 and Rapper Lazaro Rodriquez Betancourt “Pupito en Sy” in November 2018 were jailed for protesting this law. Pupito en Sy was released on August 23, 2019. Maikel Castillo was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April 2019 for protesting Decree 349, and was released on October 23, 2019.
The Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was arrested on 1 March in Havana for alleged property damage following his involvement in an anti-censorship protest and will face a summary trial in ten days, according to a statement released by the San Isidro Movement, a collective of Cuban activist artists that emerged in 2018 in response to the controversial censorship legislation known as Decree 349 that has since seen many artists and creatives targeted by the government.
The artist was arrested outside of his home when he was en route to participate in a “kiss-in” that had been convened by members of the LGTBIQ community to protest the censorship of a gay kiss scene in the 2018 film Love, Simon that was broadcasted by the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television.
Around 25 are said to have participated in the protest; the organiser Jancel Moreno was also arrested.
Otero Alcántara’s girlfriend, the artist and activist Claudia Genlui, was attacked by a police officer when she attempted to film Otero Alcántara’s arrest on her phone. She was “hit, thrown to the ground and left on the public road; her cell phone was confiscated, and she did not receive documents to show that her phone is now in police possession” according to the movement’s statement.
Genlui and members of the San Isidro Movement met at the headquarters of the national police in Havana to request information about Otero Alcántara’s arrest this week, where a police officer told Genlui that Otero Alcántara has been detained in a processing centre and will have a judgement within the next ten days.
“Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is now in jail prior to conviction. He had already been accused by Cuban authorities of contempt toward state leadership and desecration of national symbols,” the Movement’s letter reads, adding that, although Alcántara has been arrested before, most of his previous charges “do not carry enough weight, and therefore the state has fabricated a criminal charge against him”.
“We note that the use of unnecessary repressive force and physical abuse of helpless citizens and the course of policing procedures should be regarded as forms of state terrorism.”
Decree 349 essentially grants the Cuban Republic complete control over independent artistic production in the private sector, allowing government officials to shut down concerts, performances, galleries and book sales if they do not comply with a strict list of prohibited subject matter. Since it went into effect in December 2018, artist-activists have vigorously opposed the legislation through protests, performances and events, generally resulting in multiple arrests. Otero Alcántara has been arrested more than 20 times since 2018 for his political performances and protests.
Last month, the Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco wrote an open letter to Cuban artists on Facebook, where she claims that past accusations of “contempt and outrage to the patriotic symbols related to the performances he has developed in the streets of Havana are designed not only to crush [Otero Alcántara’s] artistic career but also to instil fear in the artistic community”. She urges art professionals to “raise their voices and denounce the abuse” against the artist.
The letter addresses the case of other of Cuban artist who have been either censored, beaten, interrogated or persecuted by authorities, such as Juansí Gonzalez, who was arrested in the 1980s for his street performances that critiqued government dictatorship, and Tania Bruguera, who was arrested in 2015 after a 100-hour open-studio performance in which she read The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) by the political philosopher Hannah Arendt.
Fusco says these series of aggressions by the Cuban government against artists, musicians and journalists is “a strategy to tame creators that has worked very well in Cuba for more than 60years.” She adds: “The State that promotes some is the State that suppresses all.”
The San Isidro Movement says it has already begun a campaign to free Otero Alcántara and uphold the civil rights of all Cubans. “We will be in the streets and in the courts, and we will be raising our voices against injustice. We call on artists and intellectuals of the world to speak out against the injustice being perpetrated by the Cuban government and to send messages of support.”
Punk Rockers in solidarity with imprisoned Cuban artist
The Cuban punk band "Porno para Ricardo" has a new basist and her name is Lia Villares, who has also been at the forefront of a campaign to free Danilo Maldonado, an unjustly imprisoned Cuban artist. He has been jailed since December 26, 2014 for wanting to engage in a performance art piece involving two pigs named Fidel and Raul. On January 26, 2015 the one month mark of Danilo's imprisonment the band released the above music video titled "A Day For Cuba"calling for his release.
On February 5, Lia tweeted that messages sent via this e-mail or in comments left on this page would reach him in prison. A month earlier on January 4th, Lia Villares tweeted an image
of El Sexto" with a signed text that read: "To beat me you need arms,
police, prisons. For me to beat you I only need spray paint and this
little paper. - El Sexto".
Uncommon Sense on January 22, 2015 offered an overview of the December 26th detention of Danilo Maldonado and the privations that he continues to suffer including now serious health concerns:
Despite the recent giddiness by some about Cuba, there remain in the
Castro gulag numerous political prisoners, including at least one -- Danilo Maldonado
-- arrested after the Dec. 17 announcement by President Barack Obama
that the United States and Cuba were well on their way toward normalized
relations. Maldonado, a grafitti artist better known as "El Sexto," was arrested Dec. 26 while driving two pigs to a Havana park. In Cuba, where pork for the masses is scare, that he had two pigs is
probably a crime in itself. But El Sexto's worse transgression is that
he had painted on the pigs the names "Fidel" and "Raul," and that they
were to be used in performance piece.
Lia Villares: #ITooDemand #FreeElSextoNow 1 artist deserves the attention of future free generations.
Police charged El Sexto with "insulting" and threw him in jail, where he remains while awaiting trial. Laritza Diversent, a dissident lawyer, tried to win El Sexto's release by filing a writ of habeas corpus
arguing that El Sexto had been arrested aribitrarily. Also, she wrote
that "Fidel" and "Raul" are common names and anyway, the government
should not be so sensitive to criticsm. Officials rejected her arguments. Meanwhile, Diario de Cuba and other sources reported Wednesday that El Sexto has developed pneumonia and is not receiving needed medical care.
"To live your life in fear is worse than losing your freedom." - Ai Weiwei
Powerful documentary on Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei returns to screens in South Florida this weekend in Miami at the Cosford Cinema and on Miami Beach at the Cinematheque.
AI WEIWEI photographing himself at a
Munich hospital in September 2009, with a bag containing fluid that was
surgically removed from his skull. Courtesy the artist and Haus der
Kunst, Munich.
Ai Weiwei has been beaten, detained, disappeared for 81 days and prosecuted for his outspokenness despite being one of the better known Chinese artists in the world. He was so badly beaten that he required fluid to be surgically removed from his skull.
Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.
AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait provides a nuanced exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures.
“We are united in a cause that is really important. We are united with women who are heroes and who are the only ones who have done for Cuba’s political prisoners, for the exile community, for the dissidents, for the opponents of the government and for us who have been 50 years in exile without a country these women have made news around the world so that the world know the pain of our Cuba. Thank you for giving us our heroes. Thank you. We will continue our fight. And while they march with bouquets of flowers in their hands--the only weapons they have. We, too, will continue to march in support of them. Thank you, Long Live a Free Cuba!
- Olga Guillot, Ladies in White Demonstration, March 25, 2010
Internationalmedia are reporting on the passing of Olga, artists are recalling their friendships with her and Olga's impact in music and culture around the world but not in her homeland Cuba. The Miami Herald reported how fans and friends stretched out over 8 city blocs to pay tribute to La Reina del Bolero -- The Queen of Bolero.
According to the book Shoot the singer!: music censorship today edited by Marie Korpe there is increasing concern within the international music community that post-revolution generations are growing up without knowing or hearing these censored musicians and that this could lead to a loss of Cuban identity in future generations. One of the musicians to undergo this process is Olga Guillot.
Wikipedia offers the following description of Olga's career:
Olga Guillot (born October 9, 1922 in Santiago de Cuba - died July 12, 2010 in exile in Miami, Fl) is a famous Cuban singer who was known to be the queen of bolero. She is a native of the Cuban city of Santiago. In 1954, she recorded her song "Mienteme" ("Lie to Me"), which became a hit across Latin America, and earned her three consecutive awards back home in Cuba as Cuba's best female singer. 1958 proved to be an important year for Guillot, as she toured Europe for the first time, including stops in Italy, France, Spain and Germany.
She sang alongside the equally legendary Édith Piaf during a concert held in Cannes. Olga Guillot kept a house in Cuba as she traveled around the world with her music, apart from her house in Mexico. But Guillot opposed Fidel Castro's Government, and, in 1961, she decided to leave Cuba for good and establish herself in Venezuela. Not long after that, she left Venezuela, making Mexico her only permanent residence country.
First, jukeboxes were confiscated from corner bars and nightclubs (there were as many as 20,000 jukeboxes in Havana in the 1950s). Then, in 1961, at the First Congress of Writers and Artists, music was defined as an organ of integration into the new Revolutionary society. The bolero came to be seen as a reactionary genre, in bad taste, and ultimately, banned. Cuba's world-class composers and performers, many of whom had brought the genre to its golden age, were abruptly silenced. Finally, in 1968, in the OfensivaRevolucionaria-- the Cuban equivalent of China's Cultural Revolution -- most of the 1,200 cabarets and dance halls for which Havana was known were shut down (with only a couple of exceptions, including the notable Tropicana). Bolero lovers and performers were left with no viable venues. An entire generation was traumatized by loss of the very words and music that had defined the key moments of their lives -- coming of age, first loves, stolen kisses, secret romances.
Olga speaks in defense of the Ladies in White on March 25, 2010
Olga Guillot is one of many Cuban artists disappeared by the Cuban regime from Cuba's cultural life in what music censorship experts have described as a cultural genocide. She like Celia Cruz would be erased from Cuban culture under the communist dictatorship in Cuba. Both would never be able to physically return to Cuba because of the communist dictatorship there in power that banned their music and made the nonpersons. Please engage in an act of cultural resistance and rescue help spread their music and that of other censored artists into Cuba by any means at your disposal. Olga and Celia may not be able to return to Cuba physically, but there music and their place in Cuban culture can be restored.
Her long and talented life ended on July 12, 2010 but she will always be remembered for her music and as a Cuban who suffered a long exile from her homeland thanks to a brutal dictatorship that banned her music. Requiescat in pace Olga Guillot, Queen of the Bolero and Cuban patriot. We, free Cubans and children of Cubans, will make sure that your music and your cultural legacy are restored in Cuba.
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