The rapper and activist has been transferred to the maximum security prison in Guanajay.
14ymedio, Madrid, July 10, 2026 / Rapper and activist Maykel Castillo Osorbo was transferred to the maximum security prison of Guanajay this Friday, three days after the Cuban regime carried out a similar operation with the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, whose whereabouts are unknown.
“We have learned, through a supportive source, that Maykel Castillo was released today from Kilo 8 prison in Pinar del Río, where he had been held since January of this year,” art historian Anamely Ramos, a member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) like the two political prisoners, initially reported on her social media. In that post, the activist also denounced that the artist’s whereabouts were still unknown.
Hours later, Ramos confirmed that Osorbo had made a call informing them where he had been transferred. “Maykel already called. They took him to the maximum-security prison in Guanajay. They’re macabre,” the activist declared, pointing to the Cuban regime in that last sentence.
Ramos is the only person who has had contact with Otero Alcántara, via telephone, this Friday. Through a State Security mobile phone , the MSI leader told her that he was “fine,” but that he didn’t know where he was.
Everything points to the regime’s objective, which has increased repression in the lead-up to the anniversary of the July 11, 2021 demonstrations, being a “double exile”
In the post where she shared this information, Ramos explained that the parole request for Otero Alcántara to travel to the United States was still “in process” and that the artist would be “in that unknown location until it is resolved.” And she asserted: “Luis’s friends are doing everything within our power. The Cuban regime wants him out. The regime has taken over our country and is using us all to secure its possession.”
Everything points to the regime’s objective, which has intensified repression in the lead-up to the anniversary of the 11 July 2021 protests, being a “double exile.” The fact that Osorbo, unlike Otero Alcántara, will not serve his nine-year prison sentence until 2030 only serves to confirm the arbitrary way in which this dictatorship operates.
The sentence of Otero Alcántara, arrested on 11 July before he could participate in the demonstrations and sentenced to five years, expired this Thursday. Osorbo, arrested at his home on May 18, 2021, is serving a nine-year sentence for contempt, assault, public disorder, and “defamation of institutions and organizations, heroes, and martyrs.”
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