Cuban Prosecutor Asks for 6 to 12 Years for Men who Covered Busts of Jose Marti in Blood

The alleged members of the Clandestinos group, in images broadcast on official television after their arrest. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2020 — The Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Cuba requested sentences of between 6 and 12 years in prison for three opponents who were allegedly members of Clandestinos, a group that earlier this year covered busts of José Martí with pig blood and called to “overthrow the dictatorship,”  reported Diario de Cuba.

Panter Rodríguez Baró and Yoel Prieto Tamayo, along with a third detainee, Jorge Ernesto Pérez García, were accused of the crimes of “defamation of institutions and organizations and of heroes and martyrs of a continuing character,” and “damage to cultural heritage assets.”

The public prosecutor’s office of the Plaza of the Revolution municipality requested 12 years in prison for Rodríguez Baró and 10 for Prieto Tamayo. The prosecutor asked for a six-year sentence for Pérez García disseminating the actions of Clandestinos on social networks.

The fourth detainee, Guillermo Rodríguez Torroella, was released a few months after the government media referred to the events. According to Diario de Cuba, he has an open file for “drug use and trafficking,” as does Rodríguez Baró.

The Clandestinos case captured public attention at the beginning of the year when busts of National Hero José Martí sprinkled with pig’s blood began to appear in Havana. Through social networks, an intense campaign of support was deployed by some activists in exile, until the authorities announced that they had arrested four people involved in the events.

The group had said that the blood on Martí represented the suffering of the Cuban people and their disgust with “the dictatorship.” Another of the actions called by the Clandestinos group was to paint messages against the Government in all provinces, cities and towns, or to do the same on the doors of the houses of the regime’s “informers.”

At the beginning of this month, the Cuban Prisoners Defenders association, in collaboration with the Cuban Center for Human Rights (CCDH), issued an updated list of political prisoners on the island which included Panter Rodríguez Baró and Yoel Prieto Tamayo, who were not shown as affiliated with any organization but identified as alleged members of the Clandestinos group.

See also: 14ymedio articles referencing the Clandestinos

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