Artist arrested, threatened and fined for expressing against the government

At 9 pm on 18th December, Mario Augusto Pérez Granada was arrested by agents of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), including Captain Gianny Clape Rodríguez. The arrest came after he publicly said that artists in Cuba "had to dance to the music that the government played" because if they did not do so, they would not be allowed to develop as artists, as had happened to him and other artists in the municipality of Baracoa who "for dissenting, and for telling the truth, were marginalized by the government”. The artist was taken to the PNR unit where he was detained for more than 24 hours under threats from Major Antonio Rodríguez of the State Security Department with the sanction of the law of pre-criminal social dangerousness if he continued to speak badly of the revolution. In addition, the Major told him to forget that he would be able to sing in any recreational center of the municipality because that was not going to happen. The young man was released after being fined $200 Cuban pesos (€7) for an alleged disturbance of public order.