The Cuban artist and graffiti artist Luis Miguel Pérez was released on bail this Tuesday in the city of Santa Clara, as reported to 14ymedio a source close to your family environment. The young man had been beaten and arrested by the Police on the night of Friday, September 16, in the vicinity of the monument to the Armored Train.
The family has wanted to handle his arrest with the utmost discretion, assures the source interviewed by this newspaper, since he considers that the media impact could be negative for the young man, who still faces an accusation, probably of attack or contempt of the authorities.
There is still no clarity about the circumstances of the arrest, although there is talk of a possible confrontation between the young man and the agents in the face of some arbitrariness. At the moment, the family is not willing to issue any statement, although they hoped that he would be released within 72 hours of detention, pending a trial date.
It was the rapper known as Rafa de la Santa, a friend of Luis Miguel, who, this Monday, denounced on their social networks the mistreatment that the artist had suffered. “In the early hours of the morning he was going to his aunt’s house, where he spends the night from time to time,” detailed the musician, when he was intercepted by police officers.
“They mistreat us, they attack us, they accuse us,” said the rapper, who closed his publication attributing a racist and violent attitude to the officers.
What is known is that Luis Miguel ended up being “transferred to the hospital with severe chest pain and various injuries.” “They mistreat us, they attack us, they accuse us,” said the rapper, who ended his publication by attributing a racist and violent attitude to the officers.
He added that the young graffiti artist had notable credentials as a painter since his graduation in 2012 from the Leopoldo Romañach Art Academy in Villa Clara, and that he had recently painted some murals on Varadero Boulevard in Matanzas.
Omar Mena, also a rapper, was another of those who demanded the freedom of the young man, in a facebook direct stream. “No one knows what happened,” said the man, who snapped at the police the error of imprisoning “a quiet person, who spends his life involved in his art and working for him.”
“Luis Miguel is above all an artist,” he tells 14ymedio the contacted source in Santa Clara. “He is good and very noble, known and loved in the city.” His family is also respected, he adds, with a father who was a baseball player and uncles who were basketball players “among the most important in Cuba.” His brother, Leonardo, is also known in the art world.
“No one knows what happened,” said the man, who snapped at the police the error of imprisoning “a quiet person, who spends his life involved in his art and working”
After the 11J protests, episodes of police violence have been on the rise. One of the most unfortunate and tragic cases was, precisely in Santa Clara, the murder of the young Zinédine Zidane Batista Álvarez.
On July 1, Batista Álvarez was involved in a brawl over a building in the El Condado neighborhood. As a result of the police intervention, an agent immobilized the young man and finished him off with his pistol.
The father of the murdered man, Yosvany Batista, counted a 14ymedio that “the policemen did not try to calm the situation but rather intensified the violence”. The family has tried, without success, to initiate legal proceedings against the officer who committed the murder, with license plate number 15388 and unknown identity.
It is not the only case, although it is one of the most serious, in which the impunity with which agents of the Ministry of the Interior act has been confirmed. Following the “combat order” issued by Miguel Díaz-Canel on July 11, 2021, the officers, uniformed and in civilian clothes, have beaten, arrested and harassed numerous citizens on the Island.
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