Imagine for a moment spending 36 months behind bars for exercising a fundamental human right, 1,095 days unjustly imprisoned and not provided adequate healthcare, and 26,280 hours to reflect on this outrage while separated from you family, and loved ones. Please engage in an exercise in empathy. Take out your watch or cell phone and sit in silence for one minute as time passes, and imagine that minute multiplied 1,576,800 times.
This is what Maykel Castillo Pérez Osorbo has been subjected to in Pinar del Rio at the Kilo 5 y Medio prison, together with over one thousand one hundred other Cubans jailed across the island.
Maykel Castillo Pérez Osorbo is an artist, husband, father, and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience who today marked his 41st birthday behind bars, and on May 18, 2024 marked three years in prison for exercising his fundamental rights. His daughter, Jade Castillo Hernández is nine years old. He is a two-time Latin Grammy winner, and co-author of the protest anthem Patria y Vida. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart observed the birthday of this imprisoned Cuban rapper and human rights defender over social media.
Freedom House observed Maykel’s birthday today over social media and called for his immediate, and unconditional release. Prisoners Defenders prepared the above video that documents what he has been subjected to, and his life prior to his current incarceration, and posted it over Twitter. Amnesty International prepared a short video in Spanish on Twitter also highlighting his case, and calling for Maykel’s immediate and unconditional release.
On August 13, 2024 Marti Noticias reported concerning news about Maykel Castillo provided by his wife Viviani Peña. She said he has been “showing feverish symptoms and headaches in prison. They don’t know if it’s dengue or any other virus currently present in Cuba.”
On July 23, 2024, Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), PEN International, and Civil Rights Defenders (CRD) announced the launch of a new phase of their Voces Presas campaign through a series of videos that showcase the stories of artists unjustly imprisoned in Cuba. They are calling on the international community to call for the release of five Cuban artists, jailed for exercising free expression, featured in the campaign.The five highlighted are: poet Maria Cristina Garrido Rodriguez, musician Randy Arteaga Rivera, multidisciplinary artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez, and tattoo and graffiti artist Jessica Lisbeth Torres Calvo. The organizations continue to make three fundamental demands.
- The Cuban government immediately releases all imprisoned artists and guarantees freedom of expression, artistic freedom and peaceful demonstrations in the country.
- The embassies of the European Union and the Americas in Cuba call on the Cuban government to allow them to visit the imprisoned artists to verify their conditions and subsequently issue reports with the findings of these visits.
- Organizations and individuals call on the Cuban government to eliminate the stigmatizing concept of “non-state public spaces” and to remove the requirement for state approval, one of the most repressive measures of Decree 349, for artists to freely exhibit their work.
U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Co-Chairs of the Senate Human Rights Caucus, on July 1, 2024 called for the release of human rights defenders in Latin America. They highlighted the cases of artists “Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Pérez, who have been sentenced to five and nine years in prison, respectively, for their tireless efforts to protect freedom of expression and artistic freedom in Cuba.”
On June 14, 2024 over social media, Venezuelan attorney and human rights defender Tamara Suju raised her voice “for prisoner of conscience Maykel Osorbo, adopted by the Sponsor A Political Prisoner In The World Campaign” … “who was attacked in the prison where he is being held and his situation is unknown.”
Three years have passed, but the eyes of the world are kept on the plight of Cuban political prisoners.
Artists at Risk Connection, July 23, 2024
Statement
Voces Presas Renews Calls for the Immediate Release of Cuban Artists
Cuba
New campaign action engages the international community and underscores the stories of unjustly incarcerated Cuban creatives.
Consulte la versión en español más abajo
July 23, 2024
(New York | London | Stockholm) Today, Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), PEN International, and Civil Rights Defenders (CRD) announced the launch of a new phase of their Voces Presas campaign through a series of videos that showcase the stories of artists unjustly imprisoned in Cuba. The organizations urge the international community to call for the release of the five individuals featured in the campaign.
Voces Presas began in November 2022 amid heightened repression and concern for a growing number of artists detained because of their free expression. The profiles and illustrations created for the campaign humanize and explore the stories of poet Maria Cristina Garrido Rodriguez, musician Randy Arteaga Rivera, multidisciplinary artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez, and tattoo and graffiti artist Jessica Lisbeth Torres Calvo.
In addition to criminalizing the independent and dissident artistic community, Cuban authorities have expanded the harassment and intimidation of artists and writers in recent years, as documented in ARC, PEN International, and Cubalex’s Método Cuba: Independent Artists’ Testimonies of Forced Exile. The report compiles testimonies from 17 Cuban artists in exile and other expert perspectives detailing the experiences of the independent Cuban artistic community. Similarly, War, Censorship, and Persecution: PEN International Case List 2023/2024, documents diverse attacks against more than a dozen Cuban creatives in retaliation for their expression.
The organizations renew the campaign’s demands that:
- The Cuban government immediately releases all imprisoned artists and guarantees freedom of expression, artistic freedom and peaceful demonstrations in the country.
- The embassies of the European Union and the Americas in Cuba call on the Cuban government to allow them to visit the imprisoned artists to verify their conditions and subsequently issue reports with the findings of these visits.
- Organizations and individuals call on the Cuban government to eliminate the stigmatizing concept of “non-state public spaces” and to remove the requirement for state approval, one of the most repressive measures of Decree 349, for artists to freely exhibit their work.
About the Artists at Risk Connection
The Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) is dedicated to assisting imperiled artists and fortifying the networks and organizations that support them. If you or someone you know is an at-risk artist, please contact ARC.
About PEN International
PEN International is the foremost and largest association of writers which stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression around the world. Founded in London in 1921, PEN International – PEN’s Secretariat – connects an international community of writers. PEN operates across five continents through over 130 Centres in over 90 countries. It is a forum where writers meet freely to discuss their work; it is also a voice speaking out for writers silenced in their own countries. www.pen-international.org.
About Civil Rights Defenders
Civil Rights Defenders was founded as the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in 1982. Today, we partner with and support human rights defenders who work in some of the world’s most repressive regions on four continents. Through advocacy, litigation, and public campaigns, CRD advances people’s rights globally. We also act as Sweden’s watchdog civil rights group.
U.S. Senator Chris Coons, July 1, 2024
Senators Coons, Tillis call for release of human rights defenders across Latin America
July 01, 2024
WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Co-Chairs of the Senate Human Rights Caucus, released the following statement today:
“In less than one month, the Venezuelan people will go to the polls to vote in elections that are neither free nor fair. President Nicolás Maduro has consistently undermined democracy, rule of law, and the electoral process in his country. Under his regime, innocent civilians have disappeared and been detained, tortured, and imprisoned for expressing any dissenting opinion against the government. As we approach the July 28 election date, it is critical that we bring attention to the widespread injustices that human rights defenders under Maduro’s regime are facing every day.
“At the same time, we also cannot forget about ongoing human rights abuses not only in Venezuela, but across the Western Hemisphere. Latin America remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for human rights defenders. In 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported the murder of at least 126 human rights defenders. It is imperative that we do everything we can to support the work of human rights defenders who risk their lives every day to advocate for greater freedoms in their country.
“Specifically, we call for the immediate and unconditional release of:
- Rocío San Miguel, a widely respected security expert and vocal critic of the Maduro regime, who has been wrongfully imprisoned since February for her advocacy of civilian oversight of Venezuela’s security apparatus;
- Human rights defender Javier Tarazona, who remains wrongfully detained since 2021 for his outspokenness against human rights abuses committed by Venezuelan security forces, including through the documentation of connections between the Venezuelan military and armed groups;
- Former anticorruption prosecutor Virginia Laparra, who is under house arrest and facing arbitrary criminal charges for her judicial work to defend rule of law and justice in Guatemala; and
- Artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Pérez, who have been sentenced to five and nine years in prison, respectively, for their tireless efforts to protect freedom of expression and artistic freedom in Cuba.”
- In addition to serving as Co-Chair of the Senate Human Rights Caucus, Senator Coons is Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
https://www.coons.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-coons-tillis-call-for-release-of-human-rights-defenders-across-latin-america