Regime prevents leaving Cuba and detains musician Gorki Águila

The singer Gorki Águila Carrasco, vocalist of the rock band Porno para Ricardo, was arrested this Sunday by the State Security of the Cuban regime after preventing him from boarding a flight to Mexico.

This was reported by activists and organizations on social networks, who denounced his arbitrary detention, as well as the immigration regulation that weighs on the artist and that prevents him from traveling freely outside the Island.

“Today, May 3, 2024, around 4 in the afternoon, the Cuban musician, composer and political activist Gorki Luis Águila Carrasco headed to the Havana International Airport to travel to Mexico. After informing him that he could not travel because it was REGULATED, he was arrested by the security of the Castro state, and we still do not know his whereabouts," he reported in Facebook his former bandmate, Ciro Javier Díaz Penedo.

For its part, the 4Métrica Foundation, promoter of Human Rights and more open and democratic societies in the Americas, also echoed the musician's arrest and denounced the constant harassment that Águila Carrasco suffers from State Security.

“There are countless human rights violations that have been suffered in recent years. The Cuban regime prevents him from performing with his band, monitors him with a camera in front of his apartment, has detained him repeatedly and repeatedly cuts off his internet connection,” the non-governmental organization indicated.

In that sense, the 4Métrica Foundation made “a call to the international community to speak out and reject the detention of Gorki and all the artists who are detained in Cuba.”

In addition to being the author of anthological rebellious themes that marked the punk rock cuban like Commander (dedicated to the dictator Fidel Castro) and Chivaton Communist (dedicated to the Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso-Grau), Gorki Águila Carrasco is a frontal activist against the Cuban totalitarian regime.

From the Island, the musician has not only released an independent record production and video clips of songs from Porno para Ricardo, but he also has an abundant graphic production, with posters denouncing and against the Dictatorship, as can be seen in his social networks.

Despite having traveled outside Cuban territory, on previous occasions State Security has threatened to "regulate" it and intensify the repression against him through censorship and threats, coercion that has not dented his rebellious spirit.

The term "regulated" refers to a movement restriction that the Cuban regime imposes on certain people, preventing them from leaving the country. This measure mainly affects journalists, activists, opponents, artists and other people considered critics or dissidents of the regime.

Decree-Law No. 302 of 2012, which modifies the Immigration Law, establishes the causes by which a Cuban citizen can be prevented from leaving the country. In its article 25, lists the circumstances in which a Cuban citizen may be denied departure from the country. One of these cases is subsection "f", which establishes that departure can be denied “for other reasons of public interest, in accordance with the provisions of the laws.”

The regulated people They usually discover their status when they try to leave the country and are informed at the airport or immigration offices that they cannot do so. This measure is widely criticized by international human rights organizations, as it restricts freedom of movement and is considered a mechanism of political repression.

The vocalist would be detained for Contempt of Authority

A last-minute update on the situation of Águila Carrasco reveals that the musician would have been detained at the airport itself accused of contempt for the authorities. His whereabouts remain unknown to those close to him.

"Now I learned from a friend that the musician Gorki Águila Carrasco, who was detained yesterday at the José Martí airport by State Security, is detained at the Santiago de las Vegas police station, where he is accused of contempt for personnel. from the airport," he denounced Facebook Vivian Cruz Hernandez, partner of the vocalist.

In his publication, Cruz Hernández warned that the musician "has a special condition" due to his epileptic seizures, which is why "he must take his prescribed carmabazepine medication" to avoid seizures.

In a publication Previously, the musician's partner expressed concern about the uncertainty about the whereabouts of Águila Carrasco after having been "arbitrarily intercepted by State Security."

"They denied him permission to leave the country once again, violating his rights! They took him to prison and we still don't know anything about him," Cruz Hernández denounced in a publication in which he shared an image of the musician being intercepted by a regime repressor. Cuban.