For Propaganda Against the Government, Ten Panamanians were Arrested in Cuba
The officials added that those involved “admitted to being the perpetrators of the acts.”
Ten Panamanian citizens have been arrested in Cuba for graffiti critical of the government and the island’s political system in Havana, the Interior Ministry (Minint) reported Monday in a statement distributed to official media. The Ministry of the Interior (Minint) stated that those arrested are accused of an alleged crime of propaganda against the constitutional order, for which the Cuban Penal Code provides prison sentences of up to 8 years. The graffiti contained phrases such as “Down with tyranny,” “Communism: enemy of the community,” and “We trust Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Mike Hammer,” referring, respectively, to the US president, his secretary of state, and his ambassador to the island.
All the graffiti was dated February 28, the day it was done, and included the initials CDPC at the bottom. The independent NGO Center for Documentation of Cuban Prisons (CDPC) denied any involvement in the action. According to the Ministry of the Interior, those arrested confessed that they were recruited in Panama, where they all reside, to “make signs with subversive content, contrary to the constitutional order.” The statement added that those arrested were going to be paid between $1,000 and $1,500 each for this operation upon their return to Panama.
The arrests were made at a time of high tension between the U.S. and Cuba, after Washington blocked oil shipments to the island and pressured Havana to begin negotiations. Last week, the Cuban Border Guard Troop engaged in a shootout with a speedboat coming from the U.S. carrying ten people (Cuban nationals residing in Florida) that was carrying a large amount of weaponry, ammunition and military equipment. The incident occurred in Cuban territorial waters, according to the Ministry of the Interior, which stated that it was the crew members of the boat who opened fire when the official vessel approached them to identify them. Four crew members of the speedboat died in the incident, and the other six were injured, as was a Cuban border guard.
