"El Sexto" Maldonado, Cuban artist, badly beaten for mocking Castro

Dear Reader (and those who are having this read to them):

I hope you're reading this sitting down. What I'm about to reveal to you is not only shocking, it's practically unbelievable. If it doesn't send chills up your spine, you may be missing a spine.

Cuban graffiti artist Danilo "El Sexto" Maldonado, who was picked up by Cuban authorities on Saturday after mocking Fidel Castro's death, was not treated well at the Guanabacoa detention center by the guards. In fact, he was beaten badly, his family claimed.

Now I'm not saying that his girlfriend Alexandra Martinez, 24, was lying when she told the media that "Danilo's mom saw him . . . He was badly beaten upon entering Guanabacoa and suffered a severe asthma attack." But maybe El Sexto's mother was lying to Alexandra.

What we do know for sure is that authorities confiscated his personal cell phone. Maybe they didn't want him messing around playing Solitaire.

But why would they beat him? After all, this is the Castro dictatorship--even Colin Kaepernick thinks they're swell guys. I mean how wrong can an NFL losing quarterback be? And let's not forget, they improved education on the island even though poverty hit the roof.

We know that Maria Victoria Machado, Danilo's mom, was allowed to visit him at a Guanabacoa police station outside of Havana once he was detained Saturday morning. But for them to call an action by Cuban State Security a "kidnapping" is not very nice. 

They would never do such a thing with his mom there--they'd get in big trouble.

Here's what happened: After learning of Fidel's timely death Friday night, El Sexto went around Havana and drew a couple of harmless graffiti images with his signature and the words "Se fue" (He's gone) on a wall at Hotel Habana Libre, an iconic joint where Fidel took up temporary residence in 1959 after his triumphant entrance into the city with his band of gay marauding rebels and brother Raul.

The graffiti artist also posted a video on Facebook mocking Fidel's death and urged people to "come out to the streets . . . and ask for liberty."

What's so bad about that--Raul wouldn't torture him for something so innocent as asking for liberty? Would he? I believe Colin wouldn't think Raul would act in such a mean way to someone who wanted to express himself. 


It wasn't like he was wearing a tee shirt with Osama bin Laden on it.

Since getting a free ride by police, Danilo was transferred to no less than 3 police stations in Havana--probably trying to find one that best suited his needs.

Alexandra said he was being charged with damaging public property [worth over 43 pesos] but no official charges have been issued at this time.

Several human rights organizations are calling for his immediate release but Colin Kaepernick isn't worried about it. He knows the Castro regime had to break a few eggs to make an omelette.






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