Cuba’s much ado about two little pigs

Cuba's much ado about two little pigs

A Cuban graffiti artist has been jailed for 10 months
El Sexto named two pigs Raúl and Fidel
Regime must make real human-rights strides

Cuba's questionable human-rights record is on display again over a
relatively insignificant act of civil disobedience. But how authorities
have handled it, up to now, says volumes.

The brouhaha is over Cuban graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado, known as El
Sexto, or the Sixth One. Mr. Maldonado has been in jail since Dec. 25, 2014.

His crime: Attempting to put on a performance-art play that included two
pigs named Raúl and Fidel. The pigs were appearing in a performance of
Revolt in the Farm, an obvious takeoff on George Orwell's classic Animal
Farm.

In Cuba — before and after its renewed political relations with the
United States — such irreverence in the guise of contempt for political
leaders and the regime has been punishable by law. Clearly, the
revolution has little tolerance and no sense of humor about these things.

El Sexto staged a hunger strike for 24 days when authorities announced
recently that the artist would be released last Thursday.

That day, according to el Nuevo Herald reporters, the graffiti artist's
relatives gathered outside the Valle Grande prison waiting for him to
walk free.

It never happened.

According to Cuban blogger and activist Lia Villares, prison authorities
told relatives they had no instructions to release El Sexto.

Then the artist's mother was notified by State Security that, yes, he
had served the time required and would be released before Oct. 21.

Was this all some cruel joke? As this is written, the family sits and
waits, as does El Sexto.

In the past eight months, Cuban authorities announced several times they
would release the graffiti artist, then reneged. Disappointing? Yes. A
total surprise from this mercurial and heartless regime? No.

In any free society, the joke El Sexto concocted would have been
regarded as biting, but harmless political humor, not an assault on the
state requiring imprisonment.

In the United States, people are not thrown in prison for drawing a
Hitler mustache on a poster of former President George W. Bush or for
waving banners critical of the commander in chief as President Obama's
motorcade whizzes by. Oh wait, we live in a democracy. It's different in
Cuba, not matter what tourists visiting the island are told.

The punishment imposed on El Sexto, an insignificant, young, rebellious
graffiti artist, is excessive. And the uncertainty over his release has
been painful for both the artist and his family. Supporters have ramped
up a social-media campaign: #FreeElSexto.

Now, months after the United States and Cuba renewed relations, the
constant mantra is that democratic influences will bring about change
inside Cuba.

However, it's still hard to believe a tiger like the Cuban government
will change its stripes. It's a lesson it reinforces by taking action
against people like El Sexto.

And it is yet one more of too many post-normalization examples that
confirms the regime is long way off from having the United States grant
its fondest wish: ending the embargo against it.

Source: Cuba's much ado about two little pigs | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article39790554.html