The Cuban activist Anamely Ramos, exiled in the United States, informed this Wednesday in her Facebook profile that rapper Maykel Castillo osorbo He tattooed the slogan “Patria y Vida” on his forearm and threatened to sew his mouth shut, as a gesture of protest against the mistreatment suffered in the Kilo 5 y Medio prison, in Pinar del Río, where he has been imprisoned for two years.
“If you don’t hear from me again on Friday, you know what happened: planted in a cell, with his mouth sewn up. This is war!” warned the musician during a phone call he had with Ramos, who assures that Until now Castillo had assumed prison as a “resistance” race and had focused on reinventing himself, reading and “connecting” with his family, but now he asks for “respect.”
Ramos recalled that he has been reporting on Castillo’s situation in prison for months, where he has suffered “all kinds of abuses” and the recurring violation of his rights. “Not even the nine years that they have thrown me out matter to me. I am ready to continue being me, to assume whatever. But artists are treated with respect. I am not going to give my respect in exchange for anything, nor for my freedom”, said the co-author of the song Homeland and Life.
“At this point, Maykel has decided to say enough is enough,” he clarifies, recalling that the inmate’s life is in danger
The activist and art historian also lists a list of arbitrariness committed against the musician, which includes confinement in punishment cells, periods of solitary confinement of up to three months, cancellation of regular and conjugal visits, continuous disagreements with Security agents of the State, humiliation and threats of common prisoners allowed by the officers in charge of maintaining order within the prison.
In Ramos’s opinion, these warnings are “directed by the prison bosses” to harass Castillo. “At this point, Maykel has decided to say enough is enough,” he clarified, recalling that the inmate’s life is in danger, “like that of all political prisoners who are not willing to play at the pace that power wants.”
As a preventive measure, says Ramos, the rapper “try to eat as little as possible of what they give there.” As he previously reported, his jailers have even installed a surveillance camera in his cell after accusing him of inciting a riot.
They have also delayed giving him immediate medical assistance when he needed it and refused to give his medical file to his family. “Her situation for her has worsened significantly since they changed her company,” said the activist.
For his part, Cuban opponent Guillermo Coconut Fariñas, who holds a strike of hunger in Santa Clara, has been urged by his own organization, the United Antitotalitarian Forum (Fantu), to drop the restrictions on water and food consumption that the dissident claimed to have started on June 26.
Fariñas urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to impose a “naval and air siege” on Cuba in application of its Inter-American Democratic Charter
The General Council of Fantu reported this request to Fariñas in a statement at a time when the opponent’s relatives had declared to the EFE news agency that he is in a delicate state of health, with severe pain, great drowsiness and a general decay that prevented him from standing up, and assured that the decision to request the cessation of the strike, unanimously, had been motivated by the approval in the European Parliament, this Tuesday, of a resolution which calls for sanctions for the Cuban government for violating human rights and demands the immediate release of political prisoners.
One of Fariñas’ demands when starting the hunger and thirst strike was to demand that the European Union (EU) break the Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, the mechanism that governs the organization’s bilateral relations with Cuba since 2017.
Likewise, Fariñas urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to impose a “naval and air siege” on Cuba in application of its Inter-American Democratic Charter, although the island is not part of that organization.
In addition, the dissident assured that he would maintain his protest “until all military personnel and their espionage teams currently based in Cuba, belonging to the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, are withdrawn.”
Fariñas, one of the best-known Cuban opponents internationally, and winner of the Andrei Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, told EFE at the start of the strike that he was arrested upon arrival at the Santa Clara airport, after an incident involving the loss of his their suitcases, after their return from a stay of several months in Miami, USA.
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