Accused of “subversive activities,” the musician collaborated with Maykel ’Osorbo’ and coordinated a collective exhibition in support of political prisoners.
14ymedio, Havana, 27 July 2025 (delayed translation) — The Cuban musician and activist Fernando Almenares Rivera, better known as Nando OBDC, remains on hunger strike in the Cuba Panama prison, located in Güines, Mayabeque. His mother, Eva Rivera, has publicly complained that she has not been able to communicate with the rapper nor has she received any trustworthy information by the authorities.
“She has no reason to believe in the pretexts they have given her for keeping her from seeing him,” wrote the journalist María Matienzo, who wrote about the case on social media. The artist, who is being held in a jail for those infected with AIDS/HIV in Güines, has stopped eating to demand the expedition of his legal process.
Almenares Rivera was detained on December 31, 2024 in his home in the Havana municipality of La Lisa and was accused of “propaganda against the constitutional order,” supposed “subversive activities” and ties to people that promote “terrorism against the Cuban state.”
On one of the visits his mother made to him in prison, the case manager told Rivera that they were processing her son for a crime related to “a fire that occurred in Lenin Park, the past December 30th,” but the family denies any involvement by the artist in this act.
For their part, the Attorney General has not presented any preliminary evidence nor brought any trial against him.
For their part, the Attorney General has not presented any preliminary evidence nor brought any trial against him, after more than seven months of incarceration. His arrest is classified as arbitrary and unjust by friends and organizations.
The prison authorities have alleged that “Nando is well and is not in a punishment cell,” but a fellow inmate contacted his family and confirmed that the activist remains in protest over his detention, which he considers unjust, a family member related to Martí Noticias. In addition to concerns about his legal situation, there are also fears of possible forced medical treatments, without prior diagnosis nor informed consent, stated the activist Kirenia Yalit Núñez Pérez, director of the Cuban Youth Unity Forum and Madrid resident.
This past January, the international organization Artículo 19 demanded the immediate release of Nando OBDC, after learning that he was transferred to the State Security headquarters in Havana, Villa Marista, and later to the Mayabeque prison. The same day of the arrest, regime agents burst into his home without a search warrant, confiscated personal objects and also took a Cuban flag, told his wife, Adriana María Machado.
The artistic and critical portfolio of Nando OBDC has been against the oppressive regime for years.
The artistic and critical portfolio of Nando OBDC has been against the oppressive regime for years. In December of 2024, he coordinated from Cuba the collective exposition Arte Prohibido: Desde Cuba, opened in Miami, with works by censored creators from the Island and in support of political prisoners.
He also has collaborated with artists like Maykel Osorbo, currently incarcerated, and David D Omni, and has been threatened in the past for his social media posts. In 2021, he was ordered to a police station where they warned him: “We are coming for you, you are going to have to move out of La Lisa,” the rapper Navy Pro remembered in a complaint on Facebook.
Currently, his family remains without verifiable news about his health status and demands that they let him receive visitors, adequate medical attention and that he has a fair trial. “He is in there unjustly,” reiterated a family member to Martí Noticias, while activists raised alarms about the risks of prolonged isolation and the physical deterioration of an artist that never should have been in prison.
Translated by Logan Cates
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