Fernando ALMENARES RIVERA (stage name Nando OBCD)

Throughout 2025, since his detention on 31 December 2024 on suspicion of sabotage, rapper Fernando Almenares Rivera (known as Nando OBCD) was held in pre-trial detention, facing charges of ‘propaganda against the constitutional order’, involvement in ‘subversive activities’, and having ties to individuals who promote ‘terrorism against the Cuban state’, in relation to his artistic expression in August 2024, when he publicly displayed banners with slogans critical of those in power in the city of Havana, including ‘Cuba First in the Streets for Human Rights’. At the end of the year he was held at the Cuba–Panamá Prison in the province of Mayabeque, where he went on hunger strike for a week in July 2025. 

Nando OBCD was detained on 31 December 2024 by two plain clothes police officials, reportedly without summons or judicial hearing, on ’suspicion’ that he had committed "acts of terrorism against the state" in connection with an alleged fire in his neighbourhood on 30 December 2024. He has been detained on numerous occasions, and received threats, and even beatings from authorities in response to his artistic and activism activities, including with other artists critical of the authorities (see Case List 2025). 

Nando OBDC (born 11 April 1990) has been collaborating since 2020 with various cultural projects, including the Exprésate campaign; Fire Against Fire, the Forbidden Art exhibition, and the album Free by Right.  

Update 

On 19 January 2026, Nando OBDC, was sentenced to five years in prison for the alleged ‘offence’ of ‘propaganda against the constitutional order’ under Article 124 of the Penal Code.