Havana.- Cuban artist Fernando Almenares Rivera, known as Nando obdcremains imprisoned since December 31, 2024, despite not appearing among those responsible for the crime for which he was arrested. His mother, Eva Rivera, denounces that the accusation is manufactured and that her child is imprisoned for her artistic activism.
“That day they took him from his house in the smooth without prior citation and without a court order. They suddenly entered as if he were a dangerous criminal,” Eva recalls.
Days later, the police forces returned to the house. According to the mother, “they broke with vests, long weapons and criminal cars. They stirred everything, took pictures, took things, but the only thing they took was a flag. Then they returned it because they found nothing.”
The case against Nando OBDC is linked to a fire that occurred on December 30, 2024 in Lenin Park. Although the true responsible confessed and did not know Fernando, the artist remained under investigation. “They first accused him of sabotage attempt, saying that he had traces in the place. Then, when the real culprits appeared, they invented another cause: propaganda against constitutional assets. They keep him prisoner without evidence,” says Eva.
On August 19, 2025, La Gaceta de Cuba published a requisition on events. The name of Nando Obdc does not appear among the defendants, but still continues in prison.
Currently, he is held in the Panama prison, in Güines, Mayabeque, a penalty for inmates with HIV, although he does not suffer from that disease. “They tried to force him to receive a medical treatment, but he refused. I also opposed.
Eva assures that her son suffers deeply by family separation. “He thinks of us, his grandmother who is already sick and hardly recognizes him, in which nine months ago he cannot be at home. I feel destroyed, and that kills me inside.”
Despite the efforts of your lawyer, requests for change of measure have been denied. Eva says she went to multiple official instances without obtaining an answer. “I have gone to attention to citizens in the Plaza de la Revolution, at 100 and Aldabó. Nowhere give me a solution. No one takes care of political prisoners,” he laments.
With a broken voice, Eva insists on what fears most: “Fernando is my only son. It’s my life. And they are destroying it. They are hitting me where it hurts most.”
