CUBA-DISSIDENT Cuba releases artist 'El Sexto,' considered prisoner of conscience

Record ID: 134840

  • Title: CUBA-DISSIDENT Cuba releases artist 'El Sexto,' considered prisoner of conscience
  • Date: 20th October 2015
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (OCTOBER 20, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CUBAN ARTIST DANILO MALDONADO, ALIAS "EL SEXTO" SPEAKING WITH FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS AT HOME TATTOO ON MALDONADO MALDONADO SPEAKING ON TELEPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARTIST, DANILO MALDONADO, SAYING: "No joking of this kind is allowed. They have no sense of humour and of course if you don't have humanity or respect
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6G6W3PI75K7451PLYQBBIWZAA
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Cuba released a graffiti artist known as "El Sexto" on Tuesday (October 20), ten months after he was jailed for "disrespect of the leaders of the revolution" over a satire of Fidel and Raul Castro.
    Amnesty International in late September had declared Danilo Maldonado, 32, the country's only prisoner of conscience. He was reportedly jailed after painting "Fidel," and "Raul" on the backs of a pair of pigs in apparent reference to former leader Fidel Castro and his brother and current president, Raul Castro, Amnesty reported.
    Guards at the jail where he was held told Maldonado to collect his belongings early on Tuesday (October 20), before he was released 30 minutes later.
    After his release, Maldonado told media the government lacks a sense of humour and that his paint was not complete.
    "No joking of this kind is allowed. They have no sense of humour and of course if you don't have humanity or respect for freedom of expression for many people then how will they have it over a joke about these kind of people. So simply as an artist I did my work, I tried to do it because the work was never completed. That is the crazy thing, it was never completed and look at the repercussions."
    The Cuban government maintains it does not have any political prisoners, and characterises Cuba's small but vocal dissident community as mercenaries paid by U.S. interests to destabilise the government.
    Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama surprised the world last Dec. 17 by announcing the two former Cold War foes would seek to restore diplomatic ties, which they did in July.
    But Maldonado was detained eight days after the historic accord when police discovered the animals in the trunk of his taxi before he intended to display them in a Christmas Day art show, Amnesty said.
    The Cuban artist said that closer ties between the former Cold War foes were likely to benefit the government more than the people.
    "I would expect that with relations between Cuba and the United States - that if they were really real, not the Cuban government with the United States government, that if negotiations are had then there will be benefits for the Cuban government but not the Cuban people," he added.
    In conjunction with the detente reached with the United States, Cuba by mid-January released 53 prisoners that Washington had considered political.
    The dissident Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation estimates there are about 60 political prisoners in Cuba, including some two dozen held for peaceful acts of political protest.
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