Paquito D'Rivera expresses his admiration for "Patria y vida" 0:41
(CNN Spanish) -
Cuban singer-songwriter Maykel Castillo, known as Maykel Osorbo, said in an audio broadcast by his partner on Wednesday that he began a hunger strike while serving detention.
"I fast because when it no longer exists and my organs stop working, my body and the flesh of my bones are corrupted, but my spirit will remain firm radiating light for all those who remember me when I no longer exist", the artist begins by saying and defender of democracy in statements broadcast on social networks by his partner and art curator Anamely Ramos.
“I fast for the cessation of the pandemic and the sad agony in which my people have been for 63 years, overwhelmed by a dictatorship that is corrupting our bodies.
And above all things I am fasting because my blood does not continue to flow because I want to think differently ”, he affirms.
In the end, the singer says that he uses this measure for his freedom and for that of all political prisoners in the country.
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CNN spoke this Friday with Ramos, who like Osorbo is also a member of the San Isidro movement, which advocates for greater artistic expression in Cuba.
From the US, Ramos reported that since Monday he has not been able to communicate with Osorbo and that the artist is in "legal limbo" after more than five months in detention without a date for the start of the trial.
Osorbo is the co-author of the song "Patria y vida", which has become the anthem of the protests that broke out in Cuba on July 11.
According to the NGO Freedom House, "he has been in preventive detention since May 18, after being falsely accused of aggression, resistance, evasion of prisoners and detainees, contempt, public disorder and spread of epidemic."
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The NGO Freedom House condemns the arbitrary detention of the artist Maykel Osorbo in Cuba
The Cuban government, however, has not officially recognized the activist's arrest.
CNN contacted the Cuban Embassy in Washington on Friday to request comment on the artist's situation and has yet to receive a response.
In a tweet this Wednesday, Erika Guevara-Rosas, director for the Americas of Amnesty International, affirms that the singer is on a hunger and thirst strike.
He added that it is reported that "he is isolated in a punishment cell."
"The government of @DiazCanelB is afraid of the voice and legitimacy that @ MaykelOsorbo349 has built in defense of #DDHH. We demand their freedom now!" Wrote Guevara-Rosas.
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