ABOVE: Osmel Adrián Rubio Santos, photo via Facebook.
Cuban authorities on Dec. 15 arrested a gay man who is a member of a protest movement against the government.
A video that Osmel Adrián Rubio Santos’ mother, Isbe Santos González, sent to Washington Blade contributor Yariel Valdés González shows authorities placing Rubio into a patrol car outside of his home in Havana’s Cotorro neighborhood.
Rubio in the video is wearing a face mask with his hands behind his back. Santos says her son was arrested after he left their home to buy bread at a nearby bakery.
Rubio, 18, was one of the 14 members of the San Isidro Movement who went on a hunger and thirst strike last month in a dilapidated building in Old Havana to protest the arrest of Daniel Solís, a rapper who was sentenced to eight months in prison for “disrespect” after he criticized the Cuban government in a Facebook Live video.
Authorities on Nov. 26 forcibly removed Rubio and the other San Isidro Movement members from the building.
Rubio told the Blade during a recent interview that state security agents subsequently prevented him from leaving his home. Rubio also said his neighbors marched in front of it to publicly repudiate him.
“It was a wonderful few days,” Rubio told the Blade, referring to the days he spent in the San Isidro Movement’s headquarters. “I could see what a free Cuba would be like, because there were all kinds of people there, from a gay man like me to a Muslim.”
Authorities later on Dec. 15 released Rubio after they fined him 150 Cuban pesos ($5.67) for violating the perimeter that had been created around his home. Rubio told the Blade after his release that he was once again at home and he was “good.”
