Maykel Osorbo of the San Isidro Movement based on the poor side of Old Havana.
By Vicente Morin Aguado
HAVANA TIMES – That is the story of two Cubans behind bars, each of them calling for justice, with the large difference that every of their fates are being marked by the country where they’re being held prisoner: Maykel in his homeland, Cuba, and Rogel, who had escaped to the neighbor 90 miles North.
Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, reduced a 110-year prison sentence to 10 years for truck driver Rogel Aguilera, believing that the trial judge’s sentence, which strictly adhered to the Law, was nevertheless, “highly atypical and excessive,” in response to the words Polis personally wrote to the convict.
A rapper whose artistic name is Maykel Osorbo has repeated he won’t leave his birth country, and he has been rotting in prison for eight months, with countless obstacles in his defense’s normal practice. As well as his family receive constant threats to even lose the fundamental right to a visit Maykel every 45 days, subject to their behavior and opinions voiced about human rights within the country where they were born.
The issue of how the Law works and sacred respect for individual rights, that are innate to the human condition, is perhaps an important clash that exists between the 2 countries, which is hidden behind political discourse.
Rogel is 23 years old, he committed serious infringements when driving, and involuntarily contributed to the death of 4 people, injuring one other ten and considerable material damage. In fair vindication, his case was amplified on an unrestricted Web in a rustic where the media just isn’t within the State’s control, and is far-removed from the opinions of a single political party that’s allowed and governs.
A sociological phenomenon took place which is price mentioning: social media collected almost 5 million signatures in only a number of months, demanding a discount in Rogel’s disproportionate sentence. The cause was supported by many celebrities, including Shakira and the Kardashian. Do you’re thinking that they find out about Maykel?
Let me let you know why they’re killing this black Cuban within the notorious “5 y ½” prison, Papillon’s creole-style Guyana, in Pinar del Rio. If only the hundreds of thousands of activists who fight against discrimination of Afro-descendents, including Black Lives Matter members, were to sign my petition, including the celebrities who supported the just demand for the unlucky truck driver.
Maykel was living within the very poor San Isidro neighborhood in very touristy Old Havana. Before Coronavirus, visitors would normally walk down the road that provides the neighborhood its name, giving a dollar or two to some residents, hospitable as is our custom.
It just so happened that the poor people in San Isidro, “subversively” brainwashed – the Government says – by artists that live there, including rapper Maikel and performance artist Luis Manuel Otero (one other black man), began to query why the dominion of prosperity promised by the bearded Comandante for a long time hadn’t yet come knocking on their door, and why they were being harassed by the police each time they spoke out against the Government.
The San Isidro Movement (MSI) was born, firstly to protest a decree-law that might regulate the possession and exhibition of artworks, even in their very own homes. Luis Manuel took to the road, staging a performance by wearing a Cuban flag, against the law in response to the present judicial system, and he has been taken to prison on dozens of occasions. He’s now prone to dying behind bars.
Meanwhile, Maykel resisted one among the continual arrests he was victim to, with out a legal warrant, or charges against him, on April 4, 2021. On that day, with the strength of his right fist breaking the handcuff that kept him tied up, while neighbors supported him, stopping a patrol automotive filled with police from arresting him. The photo of “El Osorbo” (almost a curse word within the old slave language Yoruba), fist raised high, a broken handcuff, became a freedom symbol, the incontestable grievance against a dictatorship.
Luis Manuel was recently named one among the 100 most influential people in 2021 by Time Magazine, and Maykel recorded in Cuba, in absolute secrecy, fragments of the memorable music video Patria y Vida, which won two Latin Grammys this yr.
Taking to the road and singing Patria y Vida is a punishable crime, because it is a transparent rejection of the 60-year-old slogan Patria o Muerte, which the very best leader of the nation demanded of all Cubans from the day he proclaimed Cuba a Socialist state.
Maykel Osorbo is suffering strange skin symptons of a disease that has nothing to do together with his physical condition before his current stint in jail.
Maykel didn’t cause any physical or material harm to anyone in his country, his crimes are well-known in response to Cuba’s brand of justice.
Medical negligence, resulting in the murder of opponents to Castrismo, has been well-documented. A recent article by the Cuban Studies Institute deals with this sinister issue.
A thousand Cubans are in prison today, having received sentences or awaiting trial, repressors’ revenge for individuals who challenged an “order” presented to the world for instance of harmony between its people and leaders, has reached the purpose of sentencing minors, who’re paying for his or her love for freedom behind bars, discrediting the validity of Communist indoctrination.
Every signature is an act of human dignity, breaking the dictatorship’s cuffs.
