Imprisoned Cuban Rapper Punished for Expressing Gratitude

…for the Grammys awarded to the song ‘Patria y Vida’, in which he participated

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – Cuban rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo, jailed for the last six months, had his phone calls suspended for three months as punishment. As art curator Anamely Ramos explained on Friday, the motive was the recorded messages the artist has been sending from jail.

One of them was sent in regards to the Latin Grammy gala on November 18th, where the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] on which Osorbo collaborated, won the two awards for which it was nominated.

Ramos stated that on Wednesday Castillo received a visit from his lawyer in the maximum-security prison of Kilo Cinco y Medio in Pinar del Río, after several days without news of the rapper. “This is how we confirmed that he is still there,” wrote the curator, a member, as is the rapper, of the San Isidro Movement (MSI).

“Maykel’s voice is unbearable for those in power, even though his body is imprisoned. With this, they only show their fear and how little authority they have left,” shared Ramos who stated that at first they punished Osorbo by denying him phone calls for one month, but when they called him to confirm the disciplinary measures that would be imposed, he wrote “Patria y Vida” below his name, for which the punishment increased to three months.

“A three-word sentence is also unbearable to them,” denounced Ramos. “Three words have the power to leave an entire state without recourse, other than violence. Three words: each one a month of isolation for Maykel. They are shameful.”

Ramos insisted that Osorbo is “unjustly imprisoned” and sick. “Under these conditions, to keep him isolated is doubly grave. Now how will we know his state of health?” she asked.

“Taking away a prisoner’s phone calls for an audio expressing gratitude for a prize he won for his talent and his effort and which is a prize for all of Cuba (which does not belong to you), is a cruel act and an embarrassment in the 21st century,” she asserted, and then stated that the Cuban prison regulations violate “the Mandela Laws and are contemptuous of human dignity and life.”

Osorbo was detained on May 18th of this year and at the end of that same month was transferred to Kilo Cinco y Medio, a maximum-security prison. He is accused of “assault”, “public disorder” and “evasion” for what occurred on April 4th at a protest on Damas street in front of MSI’s headquarters, when police attempted to arbitrarily arrest him, and he refused to get into the patrol car.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.