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A friend says Maykel Osorbo, the producer of the anti-communist song ‘Patria y Vida’, has been in jail for two weeks.
Rap, a Cuban dissident, was the author of a viral song denouncing this communist government he has been in prison for two weeks, a friend said on Thursday after the singer was given permission to make his first phone call.
Maykel Osorbo, who co-produced the track “Patria y Vida” (“Homeland and Life”), has been accused of crimes that include “resistance” and “contempt,” friend Camila Lobon told AFP on WhatsApp.
The 37-year-old artist “was able to call after 14 days without making a phone call, and he told us” where he was, he said.
US Embassy Cuba Retweeted a message from Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), criticizing Osobo’s arrest other artists those who dare to demand human rights.
“They need to end this vicious attempt to silence free thinking and debate,” he said.
.@PowerUSAID: It is encouraging to be aware of liberation @LMOAlcantaraBut the government continues to imprison Maykel Castillo and other artists who dare to demand human rights. They must end this vicious attempt to silence freedom of thought and discussion. https://t.co/k0Aw9g2SNy
– United States Embassy in Cuba (@USEmbCuba) June 3, 2021
USAID was criticized in 2014 by an Associated Press study that the agency used Cuban rappers to “break the information blockade” and document building a network of young people seeking “social change”.
The AP said the operation is a great hobby and a complete success. We don’t know if Osorbo was involved, and many artists knew nothing about the operation.
The pro-government Cubadebate website, citing Interior Ministry sources, said Osorbo is in pretrial detention “accused of escaping prisoners, detainees and escape crimes on April 4, 2021.”
On that date, residents of the San Isidro neighborhood in Osorbo gathered on his street to avoid arrest while police were shopping.
Images of the event, posted live via Facebook, with Osorbo and dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, singing “Patria y Vida” and chanting anti-government slogans, a rare event in a one-party state.
Osorbo was arrested on May 18 and given an arrest warrant. He was taken to Pinar del Rio prison on May 31, 160 km (99 miles) west of Havana, Cubadebate said he had a telephone relationship with his lawyer and his wife.
“Homeland and Life” is a rotation of the slogan “Patria o Muerte” (earth or death) created in 1960 by the communist leader Fidel Castro.
The tune is an unquestionable critique of the island’s six-decade-old communist government, and has thrown up a long list of complaints about it. poverty, repression and misgovernment.
The song, a collaboration between Florida and home-based Cuban artists, angered the government and unleashed a battle for the songs.
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