Protests in Cuba: ‘People are tired and can’t stand it’, says the dissident rapper

The strike has already totaled 44 people, some abroad, according to data from the opposition Cuban National Union (Unpacu), and is seen as one of the largest ever carried out on the island in recent decades.

An article in the official Granma newspaper accuses the hunger strikers of trying to stage a “farce” and “attempting to present a media programme”. With regard to the youth of San Isidro, Cuban television often accuses them of organizing provocations and of being in the service of the “anti-Cuban mafia” in the United States.

In an exclusive interview about what happened on Sunday and the Onpaco strike, Michele Obsorpo said these events are proof that “things are changing in Cuba”.

The singer and activist, who sewed his mouth last year in protest of the authorities, was born in Havana in 1983. Osorbo, whose birth name is Michael Castillo, has become not only a reference to rebel music on the island, but also one of rebel music to the island. One of the most critical voices of the government.

He says that his personal history is also a model of what art can do: he grew up without parents, only reached the fourth grade, went to rehabilitation centers for minors, and then found himself in music and in the fight for human rights in his country. “A reason to keep fighting, to keep living.”

The report contacted the International Press Center in Cuba to inquire about the government’s position on this issue, but did not receive a response until the publication of the interview. Read the key excerpts below.

BBC News Mundo – On Sunday, dozens of people fled his arrest in Havana, causing a rare protest on the island. How did you get to this point?

Michael Osorbo – The regime made arrests that day. They arrested (artist) Tania Bruguera and two others, and I had gone to visit some friends. While they were there, a police officer arrived in a car and asked one of them for documents, as they supposedly saw him take off his mask shortly before. I told him (the policeman) that what I’m doing is a violation of the rule of law and they asked me for my ID. I said I don’t have ID – since I don’t have the document, every time he asks me, I end up getting arrested. I didn’t want to handcuff me, because they beat me so much the day before to handcuff me, and then let me go into the garden as if nothing had happened. I don’t want history to repeat itself.

They tied one of my hands, but they couldn’t bind the other. Then people started to take to the streets and prevented my arrest. Every time they came to me, people would stand in the way and yell at them to let me go. It was the people who defended me. They told the police, “You won’t take him” and they blocked the patrol road…and this was for a while, until someone came and gave me a bike.

When I got to the house of Luis (Manuel Otero Alcantara, leader of the San Isidro movement) by bike, he was surprised to see how I arrived with the handcuffs in my hand. But then we also realized that a lot of people had come after me, and they were looking after me, and that’s when Louis and I started this protest. We started singing home and life Everyone sang.

BBC News World – talk about home and lifeYou are one of the participants in the music video that has already exceeded 4.5 million views on YouTube and upset the Cuban government. What do you think of this success?

Osorbo – Music woke up a lot of people, and it became a symbol and an anthem. There, on Sunday, people sang it live. Here, they can even listen to that song, but people still listen to it. I think it’s because people relate to what he’s saying. home and life, because it not only reflects what we feel, but also what these people feel. This showed what music can generate when it relates to people’s feelings.

BBC News World – One controversial moment occurred on Sunday when protesters began chanting a controversial rap song mentioning President Diaz-Canel’s name and many chanted a word considered offensive in Cuba.

Osorbo – It is a song that talks about protest in the language and forms of the neighborhood. Wherever you live, you can tell the president of that country what you want, that the president will definitely not be upset because you sing thousands of songs you want to sing. I turned on the music and the system came later and asked me why it was on. They beat me, abused me, put me in jail and asked me why I play music…Because music is my way of protesting and expressing what I think. They can suppress me with blows, but I will suppress them with my free art. My body has surrendered, and my body is there, when you want to hit me. But my thinking and my art are mine.

BBC News Mundo – One of the situations that occurred in parallel with the protest was a hunger strike by dozens of opponents. How do you view this protest by the San Isidro movement, as you went on a hunger strike in November of last year?

Osorbo – It is a very sad situation. It is a hunger strike that has lasted several days, and there are people who may lose their lives. What saddens me most is that the residents do not have the necessary information about this protest and do not know the reason for their hunger strike. This is sad because the situation there is delicate. They will die. Anyone can die at any time.

They are politicians, not artists, which means they don’t have the same support and support that we do. This is why their status is not well known, and also because they are far, and less connected, in Santiago de Cuba. So the system plays with this to distort the information. Since they know we are better known, one day they catch Otero Alcantara in prison and everyone goes to protest for him, so they know that one stops to look at what is happening in Unbaku for a while. They take me tomorrow and don’t talk about them another day. This sad. I am sad that Michelle Bachelet (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) did not comment on this situation.

BBC News Mundo – The Cuban government has already accused MSI and Unpacu of being in the service of the US and said they are “mercenaries” who receive money and follow CIA evidence, as well as being the protagonists of “farce” and “media shows” to get attention.

Osorbo – I’ve been searching on the internet how much a CIA agent gets, because if they pay me every time they accuse me of being an agent here, I should already be a billionaire…Actually, that’s very rude…It’s always the same reporting style, Everything we do is coordinated by the “Miami Mafia” and the CIA. I just want you to tell me what you did with the money. Have you not seen how I live, how does Luis Manuel live? I take the bus, I live like any Cuban. I’m not Sandro Castro (the grandson of Fidel Castro who caused a stir on the island after he recently posted a video of him driving a Mercedes-Benz that he calls his “game”).

If they had proof, however small, that we were CIA agents, we would be in prison a long time ago. Nobody tells me we are mercenaries. A mercenary is a government that trains intelligence agents and then exports them to countries like Nicaragua or Venezuela. We are artists and the opposite will not be proven. If art is a provocation to them, the problem is not us.

BBC News Mundo – My protests, both in November and on Sunday, led to popular movements in a way we may not have seen in Cuba in the past 60 years. Why do you think people are taking to the streets now?

Osorbo – What is happening in Cuba now is a sign that these people are tired, that they cannot take it any longer. The reality in which we live has changed. They could no longer cover the sun with a sieve. People go through very difficult times, they feel when they don’t have food, when you have to queue for everything, when you have to do an operation and you can’t do it, or they hurt you or put obstacles in your way for everything.

So you can see how it goes, the day after the protest, Luis Manuel was arrested for setting up a birthday celebration to serve candy to children. Because today, to buy candy for their children, parents need dollars, a currency that no one earns here. Thus, Luis Manuel’s work sought to open our eyes, and our conscience, about why Cuban children cannot eat sweets. And they took him away. And so we spent 60 years carrying it, but no longer. This has to stop.

But not only this. It can’t be true that it wasn’t the law, that they treat us that way… We are tired of being handcuffed, beaten, arrested because we think differently. Maybe I’m dead, maybe not me, maybe not Luis Manuel, but people realize they’re sick of him.

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