The Cuban activist and art curator Anamely Ramos warned this Tuesday that, despite the United States approving a humanitarian parole for the rapper and political prisoner Maykel Castillo Pérez - known as Maykel Osorbo - the Cuban regime has not shown any signs that it will allow his release from prison.
In a video shared on the Facebook wall of journalist from Univisión, Javier Díaz, Ramos was direct: “We have no confirmation so far that the regime will actually let him out.”
Still, he emphasized that the parole is approved and that they will exert "all the pressure possible" to achieve his release.
The Cultural Rights Observatory, which supports the case, confirmed that the U.S. processed and approved Osorbo's parole concurrently with that of his companion from the San Isidro Movement, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, although these are independent processes.
Otero Alcántara arrived in Miami on July 18, after five years in prison, forced by the regime to go into exile as a condition for regaining his freedom.
Osorbo, however, remains detained in the maximum-security prison of Guanajay, in Artemisa, with a nine-year sentence that does not end until 2030.
The transfer to that prison occurred on July 10, just three days after Luis Manuel was taken out of there, and without prior notification to the family. According to the Observatory, Osorbo was placed exactly in the same cell that had housed his companion from the San Isidro Movement.
Cubalex described this maneuver as deliberate psychological torture by the Cuban political police against high-profile opponents.
This Tuesday, Osorbo received his first visit in Guanajay, and he was allowed to bring his belongings into the new cell, according to the Cultural Rights Observatory.
The case history reveals a pattern of violations by the regime. In May, state security agents offered Osorbo the option to go into exile; he accepted, but the regime did not follow through and did not include him in any pardon either.
The rapper was arrested on May 18, 2021, and sentenced to nine years in prison on June 24, 2022, on charges of assault, resistance, contempt, and defamation of institutions, in direct retaliation for his activism and for being a co-author of "Patria y Vida," the anthem of the protests on July 11.
His trial was held behind closed doors: his lawyer was disbarred three days before the proceedings, and the substitute defender did not have time to prepare.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights declared his detention to be arbitrary and politically motivated in June 2026, recommended the annulment of his conviction and demanded his immediate release.
Amnesty International recognizes him as a prisoner of conscience, and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in January 2022 that his imprisonment was arbitrary.
The Observatory of Cultural Rights and Ramos were emphatic in their statement: "We reiterate the demand for the immediate release of Maykel Castillo Pérez and denounce, once again, the use of the Cuban penitentiary system against artists, activists, and critical voices who confront the Cuban Government."
The regime currently holds more than 1,306 political prisoners, a record high recorded as of July 9, 2026, including 40 minors.
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