"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)
Showing posts with label Maykel Castillo Pérez (El Osorbo). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maykel Castillo Pérez (El Osorbo). Show all posts
Yesterday marked two years since the start of political show trials against Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, two nonviolent and internationally recognized artivists, which resulted in lengthy and unjust prison sentences for both.
Maykel Castillo and Luis Manuel in show trial footage.
Maykel
Castillo Pérez, musician, and
two-time Grammy winner, was imprisoned on May 18, 2021. He was put on "trial" after more than a year in prison, and today, despite
being innocent, has been locked up for over three years.
— Center for a Free Cuba (@cubacenter) June 1, 2024
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez
were unjustly sentenced to five and nine years in
prison, respectively on June 24, 2022. Both had remained jailed following their arrests on the dates mentioned above.
Maykel Castillo Pérez, a prisoner of conscience, artist, musician, and two-time Grammy winner, was imprisoned on May 18, 2021, marking two years of illegal captivity today.The San Isidro Movement shared a Tweet demonstrating his nonviolent dissent, and making the case that this was the reason for his captivity.
— Movimiento San Isidro (@Mov_sanisidro) May 18, 2023
Cuban curator, and a friend of Maykel's, Anamely Ramos González held a protest outside the Embassy of the Cuban dictatorship in Washington DC to observe this anniversary, and demand Maykel's release.
Las defensoras de #DDHH cubanas son luz y guía para la lucha por la libertad de cientos de personas detenidas por ejercer derechos, incl @AnamelyRamos
Cuban prisoner of conscience Maykel Castillo Pérez “Osorbo” was sentenced to nine yearsin prison by the Castro regime on June 24, 2022.
Fellow musician and collaborator "El Funky" released a new music video on May 13, 2023, Warrior, dedicated to his unjustly imprisoned friends Maykel and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
Today Erika Guevara Rosas of Amnesty International released a letter addressed to Miguel Diaz-Canel. In it she called for the release of Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, José Daniel Ferrer, and the hundreds of people imprisoned just for exercising their human rights in #Cuba.
Also today, Alessandra Pinna of Freedom House tweeted "As a citizen, I cannot understand what it is to live in a country without freedom and rights. As a human, I will not stop demanding justice for those from whom it was taken.Freedom for Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo. Two years of unfair imprisonment." She embedded a Tweet from the main Freedom House account that is shared below.
Maykel Castillo Pérez was arrested #OTD in 2021 by #Cuban authorities for defiantly leading antigovernment protests.
Two years later, as his health deteriorates while unjustly imprisoned, we continue to demand his immediate release! #FreeThemAll
These international human rights organizations have been following his case closely. Amnesty International offered the following background information on Maykel 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.'"
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. Decree 349 is a law that further restricts artistic freedoms in Cuba. Three days after the concert, he was detained by the Cuban secret police, and kept jailed.
Please spread the word on his plight, and the plight of hundreds of other Cubans jailed for exercising their freedom of expression.
One final note, in addition to being a prisoner of conscience, artist, and musician, Maykel is also a father. Imagine 730 days kept away from your daughter in a grimy cell.
Let us no longer shout "Homeland and Death" but "Homeland and Life" - Patria y Vida (2021)
Cuban singer Descemer Bueno premiered this week the song "Tears of Blood" [Lagrimas de Sangre], a denunciation of the totalitarian system in Cuba, that features prisoner of conscience Maykel Castillo Pérez (El Osorbo), and Isabella Castillo. An image of jailed Cuban journalist, Esteban Lázaro Rodríguez López appears in the music video. He was forcibly exiled a day after the video's release.
Video is directed and edited by Ernesto García and with photography by Sisy Gómez and Erick Delgado. The video that accompanies the song brings together images of the nonviolent demonstrations of 11J, repressive actions by the dictatorship over the past 63 years, Operation Pedro Pan, and the exodus of Cubans who fled to the sea to escape the Island in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, and the 1994 rafter crisis.
The video highlights three little girls killed in 2020. On January 27, 2020 three school girls died when a balcony collapsed on them
in Old Havana. María Karla Fuentes and Lisnavy Valdés Rodríguez, both
12 years old, and Rocío García Nápoles, 11 years old were killed.
When Maykel Castillo begins to rap images of him appear in the music video. There are concerns that Maykel Castillo Pérez (El Osorbo) is suffering from a serious health condition, not receiving adequate care and is being pressured to go into exile by the Castro regime.
Posts
