Castro dictatorship seeks 4-year prison sentence for artist who posed for photos with a Cuban flag

According to the communist Castro regime, Aniette Gonzalez committed a crime when she took photos of herself draped in a Cuban flag. For that, she deserves four years in a Castro gulag. This is socialism in action.

Via Periodico Cubano (my translation):

Activist Aniette Gonzalez accused of ‘disrespecting national symbols’

Cuban prosecutors are requesting a four-year prison sentence for activist Aniette González, accused of “disrespect for national symbols” after posing wrapped in a flag. The 43-year-old artist was arrested on March 23rd in the province of Camagüey, after sharing photos on social media of her body covered with the national flag.

Independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada said that González contacted him from the Kilo 5 women’s prison in Camagüey, where the opposition member is currently held, stating that she simply “took a photo with the Cuban flag,” which belongs to “everyone.”

After her arrest in March, González spent several days held by the Camagüey State Security without formal charges being filed. However, the police later informed her family she would be subjected to a trial for the photos she shared online as part of an artistic performance, in which González poses with the Cuban flag covering her body. This was done in solidarity with the opposition campaign “The flag belongs to everyone,” supporting artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

Indeed, Otero Alcántara created the work “Drapeau” in 2019, where he used the flag as a symbol of the Cuban population, which led to repression by the regime. Although he was released after human rights defenders’ complaints, the artist was arrested again in July 2021 prior to the protests that erupted on the Island. In June 2022, he was ultimately sentenced to five years in prison by a Popular Municipal Tribunal in Central Havana.