Casla Institute requests proof of life from Cuban musician and activist Maykel Castillo Osorbo
14ymedio, Havana, June 19, 2024 — The prison authorities of the Kilo 5 y Medio prison, in Pinar del Río, Cuba, are making life impossible for political prisoners serving their sentences in this prison. According to Cubalex, Jorge Luis Rodríguez Valdés Tangallo was again denied the delivery of food, medicines and other essential items.
The legal NGO also said the activist has not been able to receive his regular visits for three months. Since Tangallo has no close relatives, Eduardo Díaz Fleitas, also an activist and former political prisoner of the Black Spring, attends these meetings, but he is repeatedly denied access to the prison.
The restriction on receiving external aid, even to cover basic needs, “shows the use of deprivation of liberty as a form of reprisal based on political motives,” Cubalex said, adding that the prisoner has even been restricted from receiving phone calls.
Since Tangallo has no close relatives, Eduardo Díaz Fleitas, also an activist and former Black Spring political prisoner, attends these meetings
Tangallo was sentenced in April 2022 to four years in prison for the crime of “contempt” and previously accused of “enemy propaganda” for painting the phrases “Díaz-Canel singao”(Díaz-Canel Motherfucker), “Abajo el comunismo”(Down with Communism), “Abajo los Castro”(Down with the Castros) and “Viva el 27 de Enero”(Long Live January 27) on the train station walls in the town of Entronque de Herradura. In Kilo 5 y Medio prison, he also faces constant threats of being transferred to a punishment cell for denouncing the living conditions inside the prison.
Cuban musician and activist Maykel Castillo, known as Osorbo, is serving his sentence in the same prison. The Venezuelan Casla Institute, which monitors the state of democracy in Latin America, requested proof of life for him last Friday.
Through social media, its executive director, lawyer Tamara Suju, warned that the artist, a member of the San Isidro Movement, denounced that “they are trying to kill him in prison,” that “he is being punished and the dictatorship has him incommunicado.” On April 18, the rapper was assaulted by four ordinary inmates in complicity with the prison authorities.
The Observatory for Cultural Rights denounced last month physical and psychological aggressions against Osorbo, who receives “no or defective medical care” in the face of the multiple ailments he has presented. Likewise, they protested against the concealment of the medical records from his family. The rapper is confined to solitary confinement and visits have been cancelled as a punishment for sending messages or repeatedly refusing to be transferred to another prison. In addition, they accused him of planning “an uprising” inside the prison, so they even installed a security camera to monitor him.
The rapper is confined to solitary confinement and visits have been suspended as a punishment for sending messages or recurrently refusing to be transferred to another prison
Osorbo, one of the authors and performers of the song Patria y Vida, a winner of two Latin Grammys, was arrested two months before the historic protests of 11 July 2021 — known as ’11J’ — and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was accused of “attack,” “public disorder” and “prisoners or detainees’ escape,” although he was held in prison for a whole year without trial, until May 2022.
The musician was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in August 2021 and earned the Freedom Award from Freedom House in May 2022.
Translated by LAR
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
