{"id":401768,"date":"2026-03-24T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/401768\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:12:09","slug":"kneecaps-curious-lack-of-solidarity-with-jailed-cuban-rapper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/401768\/","title":{"rendered":"Kneecap\u2019s curious lack of solidarity with jailed Cuban rapper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rap would not really be my thing, you may be surprised to know, but each to their own. Our most famous rappers are Kneecap who are currently in Cuba as part of a celebrity revolutionary tourist tour of the beleaguered and impoverished socialist dictatorship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is unlikely that Kneecap will get to meet with Cuba\u2019s best-known rapper, Meykel Castillo Perez who performs as Osorbo. His song Patria y Vida<\/a> won a Latin Grammy in 2021.\u00a0 Osorbo was not at the ceremony for the same reason that he is unlikely to meet Kneecap.\u00a0 He is in prison.<\/p>\n

He has been in prison since May 2021 having been sentenced to 9 years for \u2018Crimes against State Security\u2019 and public disorder. This came as part of a crackdown by the Communist Party secret police in response to growing opposition which culminated in massive public demonstrations against the regime that lasted from July to November 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Osorbo was a particular target as Patria y Vida \u2013 \u2018Homeland and Life\u2019 \u2013 had become the anthem of the underground resistance. It is a play on the regime\u2019s \u2018Patria o Muerte\u2019 which offered death as the only alternative to rule by the Castro Gang. That promise that was fulfilled by the state murders of tens of thousands of Cubans since 1960.<\/p>\n

Two things ought to be made clear. Firstly, the impression given that Cuba\u2019s current dire situation is either recent or simply due to the American embargo is false. Cuba has been stuck in a time warp of poverty and degradation for generations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is the case despite massive Soviet aid and the natural advantages provided by the sugar sector which socialist collectivisation managed to turn into a basket case. The United States embargoes sugar imports but no other trading bloc does and the Chinese have partly replaced the former Soviet Union as a subsidised and friendly trading partner.<\/p>\n

Secondly, while the Cuban people would no doubt get rid of the nepotistic and brutal regime given a chance, this ought to be left to themselves.\u00a0 The regime will collapse by itself. What it does not need is direct American intervention.<\/p>\n

I wrote about the opposition in Cuba in 2021 focused on the San Isidro <\/a>group of which Osorbo was a co-founder. It was set up to oppose Decree Law 349. This 2018 law requires the Culture Ministry\u2019s approval for public and private cultural activities.\u00a0 According to human rights groups, Meykel had been detained 121 times, including 13 months detention, from September 23, 2018, to October 23, 2019, prior to his current detention.<\/p>\n

At present, Maykel \u201cOsorbo\u201d Castillo P\u00e9rez appears to be in the Kilo 8 prison, located in the province of Pinar del Rio. He was transferred there in February and according to Amnesty International had a closely supervised family visit on February 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a press conference in Havana, one of the Kneecap chaps claimed that \u201cIrish and Cuban solidarity is something that goes back a long time.\u201d\u00a0 There are certainly historical resonances including the fact that some Cuban prisoners known as Los Plantados \u2013 The Immovables \u2013 have refused as did the H Block blanketmen to wear a prison uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Osorbo on hunger strike in 2021.<\/p>\n

Some, like Irish republicans from the 1920s to 1980s, took this further and went on hunger strike.Osorbo was one of the hunger strikers in 2021.\u00a0 Like Thomas Ashe in 1917 and Frank Stagg in 1976 some have been force fed and died.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the Cubans who suffered this horrific end was Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died following 85 days on hunger strike after being forcibly fed. He had been sentenced to 36 years for \u201cpublic disorder.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One might have imagined that this would have elicited sympathy and solidarity among Irish republicans but the Bobby Sands Trust<\/a> \u2013 which is disowned by the Sands family \u2013 published a statement from Alain de Benoist which implied that Tamayo was a criminal, just as people had described Bobby Sands.<\/p>\n

It would appear that the same schizophrenia applies to Kneecap. I contacted their manager Daniel Lambert who is also involved in running the Bohemians FAI club to ask \u201cwhether they intend to raise the case of fellow rapper \u2013 and 2021 Latin Grammy award winner \u2013 Meykel Castillo Perez who performs as Osorbo.\u201d<\/p>\n

I also inquired whether, \u201cGiven the band\u2019s opposition to state censorship and repression will they ask to meet with Obsorbo or failing that will they raise his case publicly with the Cuban authorities?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I further asked if \u201cyou and the band have to apply for permission to perform under Decree Law 349 which is the censorship decree which the San Isidro movement was founded by Osorbo and others to oppose?\u201d<\/p>\n

The response from Lambert was \u201cWe don\u2019t speak to Gript Matt.\u00a0Free Palestine. Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rap would not really be my thing, you may be surprised to know, but each to their own.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[48750,182177,18,117,19,17,4066,337,33950],"class_list":["post-401768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-cuba","tag-cuban-rapper","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kneecap","tag-music","tag-prison"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116285508573874812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}