Madrid/At the end of 2025, 17 Cuban artists remain locked up in prisons on the Island and ten more are serving sentences without internment “as a direct consequence of their creative practice, their civic participation or their refusal to renounce their own voice,” the Cultural Rights Observatory denounced this Monday.
In a brief statement On its Facebook page, the organization points out that “one of the most serious and persistent expressions of repression in Cuba [es] “the imprisonment of citizens for the exercise of their freedom of expression, specifically of young creators whose personal development has been truncated by the political hatred that distinguishes the Government of Cuba.”
The observatory does not give the names of the people who are part of its list, although on previous occasions they have made reference to the most obvious cases, such as the plastic artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbosentenced to five and nine years in prison in 2022, which, for the former, means his release this year – since they were arrested in 2021 -.
“One of the most serious and persistent expressions of repression in Cuba [es] the imprisonment of citizens for the exercise of their freedom of expression”
Also cited in their previous complaints are the cases of Yasmany González Valdés, an activist and rapper sentenced to four years in prison for painting posters against the Government, and Wilmer Moreno Suárez, sentenced among the 11J protesters in La Güinera (Havana) to a sentence of 18 years in prison and whose stage name is Mister Will D’Cuba.
“During this year we have accompanied, documented and denounced the cases of artists imprisoned or sanctioned for political reasons, updating the situation of those who continue to face institutional violence, medical negligence, isolation, threats and arbitrary punishments within the country’s prison system,” adds the Observatory.
In your postalso accuses the authorities of subjecting the artists’ families – like other prisoners – to pressure and interrupting their careers and work.
“We will continue naming each artist, recording each abuse and sustaining the memory of those who resist from prison and those who do so under harassment in semi-freedom,” the platform claims.
In the midst of this bleak panorama, the person who has decided to put an end to the mere idea of returning to Cuba is Santiago native Luis Alberto Viscet Vives, known as La Crema. The artist, with thousands of followers for his music that denounces everyday life in Cuba, had left for work in the Dominican Republic two weeks ago, which led many to speculate about his exile.
Now, the singer has published his new video, Christmas in freedom, humorously recounting his change in life: “I came out of the blackouts, the mosquito nets and the filth. Goodbye, chikungunya,” the lyrics say.
In case there was any doubt, La Crema has confirmed in the comments of the video, recorded in Punta Cana, that he does not plan to return to the Island and thanked his followers and his new reality.
Almost at the same time, the Cuban Institute of Music announced yesterday the 2025 National Music Prize, which this time has gone to one of the best-known artists of the ruling party: Amaury Pérez Vidal, one of the founders of Nueva Trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez or Pablo Milanés.
The ICM highlighted in its release that “his songs are close to jazz and pop, others mixed with rock music, and his most recent line of creation is based on the style of romantic songs.”
For its part, the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac) has stressed that “as a composer and performer, he has managed to merge poetic rigor and emotional closeness, without giving up a critical and committed view of reality. His fidelity to an ethic of creation makes him a reference for Nueva Trova and contemporary Cuban song.
The winner expressed gratitude for an award that he considered unexpected: “Against hostile and capricious winds I fought, I tried and achieved some songs that, I am sure, will transcend me, and that is more than a privilege (…) I have not been a man of ambitions or vanities, I believe I was, and am, on the side of just causes.”
