The Cuban rapper Andrés Matos Alcántara, artistically known as MC K-LIBRE, has been detained since Thursday, June 25, after attending what authorities described as a simple interview at the police unit in Siboney, in the Playa municipality of Havana, according to his wife’s report to Martí Noticias.
The regime accuses him of an alleged public disorder offense, linking him to the cacerolazos and protests that shook the Barbosa neighborhood between the night of June 18 and 19, triggered by power outages lasting over 30 continuous hours.
His wife, Ariacna Garcés Gómez, reported that Matos was summoned on Wednesday, June 25th, for a supposed interview, but when he showed up the following day, he was immediately handcuffed and taken away in a patrol car, without any legal documents being presented.
"They have not presented any arrest or search warrant. What they did was handcuff him and put him in a patrol car," Garcés stated.
The authorities first transferred him to the unit at 3rd and 110, and then, as they informed him that same night, to the Fifth Police Unit. When his wife went to the location on Friday, they initially told her that the detainee was not listed in their records.
"They say that Matos is the leader of all the protests and pot-banging that are happening here in Barbosa," Garcés pointed out, categorically rejecting that version.
According to his testimony, both of them passed by the area of the protests on Avenida 25 on their way home and stayed for only about 20 to 30 minutes. "There were people shouting for freedom and burning objects in the street. We were there for about 20 or 30 minutes, but we didn't throw stones or hit anyone," he stated.
They left before the arrival of the police trucks because the smoke posed a direct health risk to the musician, 39 years old, who suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and type 1 diabetes.
"Matos is a sick man. When he experiences a respiratory crisis, he relies on oxygen and needs to take metformin daily," explained his wife, who also recalled that the artist suffered fractures in several ribs during a severe COPD crisis: "He lost consciousness in the bathroom and fractured his ribs when he hit the wall. It is a situation that still affects him."
At first, the authorities refused to accept their medications due to the absence of the medical card. Only after presenting the necessary documentation were they able to receive metformin and a salbutamol inhaler.
The NGO Cubalex issued an urgent alert describing the situation as a "possible short-term forced disappearance", while rapper Eliécer Márquez Duany, known as El Funky and performer of Patria y Vida, denounced the arrest on social media using the hashtags #SOSCuba, #FreeMatos, and #LibertadParaLosPresosPolíticos.
"The regime is trying to pin a false charge of public disorder on him," wrote El Funky.
The coordinator of the Cuban Youth Dialogue Table, Kirenia Yalit Núñez Pérez, warned that there is an intention to fabricate a judicial case against him and emphasized the symbolic weight of the artist: "For me, he is one of the strongest representatives that Cuba has in rap against the dictatorship. He is a young man whose music is reaching and being heard by other young people within the country, and we are sure that precisely for that reason they are trying to prosecute him."
The protests in Barbosa are part of a wave of conflicts that reached record numbers in May 2026, when the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,311 protests, complaints, and critical expressions in a single month. As of the publication of this note, the Cuban authorities had not filed formal charges nor provided official information regarding the legal situation of the artist.
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