Artista Cubano Arrested for ‘He’s Gone’ Graffiti Following Fidel Castro’s Death

Maldonado had reportedly begun to spray-paint the words ‘he’s gone’ along the streets of Havana. Police are reportedly stationed outside his door, preventing anyone from entering the apartment. Maldonado’s mother fears police are planting evidence in his house to keep him detained on false charges.

Frances Martel reports: Cuban secret police have abducted the anti-communist artist Danilo Maldonado, according to his mother, who told the Spain-based Diario de Cuba that he had taken to the streets late Friday to celebrate the death of dictator Fidel Castro.

“They asked the landlady for his key, they broke into his house and took him away. We don’t know where,” María Victoria Machado González said of her son, calling his arrest an “abduction.” “He went out last night to celebrate Fidel Castro’s death, to place signs all over Havana,” she noted.

“They asked the landlady for his key, they broke into his house and took him away. We don’t know where… He went out last night to celebrate Fidel Castro’s death, to place signs all over Havana.”

— María Victoria Machado González

Maldonado had reportedly begun to spray-paint the words “he’s gone” along the streets of Havana. “The images are already circulating” in Cuba, his mother alleged. Police are reportedly stationed outside his door, preventing anyone from entering the apartment. Maldonado’s mother fears police are planting evidence in his house to keep him detained on false charges.

[Read the full story here, at Breitbart ]

Even if they do not plant any evidence, Maldonado’s mother says the artist kept a collection of about 30 political works, all of which could be punishable under communist law.

Maldonado became famous in Havana for his anti-communist street art and served time in prison in 2015 following an attempted art installation in public. In October 2015, Maldonado was arrested carrying two pigs painted with the names “Fidel” and “Raúl” on their backs, in an homage to the novel 1984. He planned to set them loose in a Havana square.

Following his release, Maldonado – whose artistic name, “The Sixth,” is a nod to the spies known as the “Cuban Five” – promised more acts of defiance against the Castros.

Maldonado was again arrested in March, shortly after President Barack Obama departed from…(read more)

Source: Breitbart

Related articles

• Fidel Castro’s ashes to be buried after week-long journey across Cuba (theguardian.com)
• Kim’s Castro condolence letter reveals long-standing North Korea-Cuba ties (japantimes.co.jp)
• US Rep. McGovern: Castro’s death a chance for reconciliation (bostonherald.com)
• ‘A tyrant is dead’: Congress reacts to the death of Fidel Castro (bostonherald.com)