A gigantic police operation surrounds this Friday all the streets adjacent to the Grand Packard hotel, in Old Havana, where a crowd of people gathered this Thursday to collect bills allegedly thrown into the air by American rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine.
This Friday, two artists who call themselves OTF and Anyelo Pazo claimed responsibility for the action, boasting on their social networks that they were confused with Tekashi. Both posted poor quality videos showing two masked individuals throwing bills that appear to be Cuban pesos from the roof of a car.
Meanwhile, the Paseo del Prado, where the establishment is located, is closed to passersby from Cárcel street to Colón street, including part of the adjacent streets, such as Capdevila, Genios and Refugio. A multitude of agents, uniformed and in civilian clothes, also guard every corner.
The Police went looking for him to identify “everyone who was there” who were part of the riot. The man replied indignantly: “I don’t lend myself to that, you look for people”
“So many useless arms instead of emptying the garbage containers or painting the facades,” muttered an old woman who was not allowed to pass through the place with bad manners. With foreigners, the police were a little more friendly: “Good morning, you can’t circulate around here.”
A local resident told this newspaper that the police went looking for him to identify “everyone who was there” who was part of the riot. The man replied indignantly: “I don’t lend myself to that, you look for people.”
In the part of the promenade that can be traveled, they had set up stalls where they sold all kinds of items with revolutionary motives.
Of what happened on Thursday, the only totally certain thing was an internet cut around seven at night. Around midnight, the state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa informed its subscribers that the Internet service in Cuba was beginning to be restored, although with exceptions.
The first testimonies of the event, this Thursday, said that the rapper Tekashi appeared in front of the luxurious hotel on top of a vehicle and began to throw bills of up to 100 dollars, that the young people stampeded around the car and that, at the Within minutes, the police came to disperse them.
However, the ruling party denied this version of events through related accounts. Early this Friday, the profile created by State Security known as Mauro Torres he claimed it was a scam involving two people posing as the rapper and throwing out counterfeit bills. “An Internet user named Eugenio Fenesí commented that ‘they were scammers, who were in a modern private car, a Renault brand, they threw USD 1 bills, got in and got lost,'” he said in a text.
Torres said that in the video it can be seen – despite the precariousness of the images – that whoever throws money has a tattoo of 33, while the rapper is a “fan of 69” and “does not have another number on his tattooed body.” In his opinion, these masked men wanted to “cause chaos” taking advantage of the rapper’s stay. “You could see to their faces that they were Cubans who live in the Yuma, but the worst thing is not that and all the chaos they generated, but rather that when they left command yourselves they ran over an old man who had to be sent to the hospital,” he says, citing another alleged witness.
Tekashi 6ix9ine had not given any sign of action through his social networks either, where he usually boasts of his provocations.
The controversial artist, whose real name is Daniel Hernández, is the son of a Mexican and a Puerto Rican, although he was born in New York, where he still lives. At 26 years old, the rapper has achieved great popularity, especially on social networks – he has more than 21 million followers on Instagram -, where in 2017 his song went viral gummo, which achieved the record for the most viewed video on YouTube in 24 hours. Furthermore, she has collaborated with the popular American rapper Nicki Minaj.
However, his personal history is highly controversial since his childhood, when he was expelled from school and began, at just 13 years old, to sell drugs. His first conviction came at the age of 19, for a sexual offense, and in 2018 he was arrested again for organized crime, possession of firearms and drug trafficking.
In 2019, he pleaded guilty to nine criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit murder, and agreed to a reduced sentence that led him to be released from prison in 2020, after having served a good part under house arrest due to the pandemic.
His peculiar image – dyed hair, tattoos – but above all his ostentatious lifestyle, displaying large wads of bills that he insists on giving away in different cities or buying luxury items and staying in five-star hotels and more, complete the profile. of an artist who has fallen out with a multitude of professional colleagues who do not want to mix with someone with his background.
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