Marco Antonio PINTUELES MARRERO

Rapper and activist Marco Antonio Pintueles Marrero was conditionally released on 17 January 2025 following negotiations between the USA, the Vatican and Cuba. He was serving a five-year sentence of correctional labour in ‘La Aguada‘ camp for the crime of ‘sedition’ that was converted to a suspended sentence prior to his release. Marco Antonio was arrested on 11 July 2021 in reprisal for his participation in peaceful protests, sentenced to seven years in prison in February 2022, and released in April 2022. On 9 June 2022, he was informed that he would have to serve five years of correctional labour (see Case Lists 2022-2025) 

In November 2023, Pintueles Marrero released his song ‘Basta‘ which criticises the censorship, poverty and the general crisis in Cuba under President Miguel Díaz-Canel. On 2 November 2024, immediately after the song was made public, the rapper was transferred to the State Security Criminal Instruction Centre in Holguín, where he was held incommunicado for six days and, according to his relatives, was threatened with further charges for writing the song. 

Marco Antonio Pintueles Marrero, born in August 2003, is a rapper and activist who writes lyrics critical of the authorities.