It's been almost two months since El Sexto was imprisoned

On the evening Fidel Castro's death was announced, Danilo did what most Cubans were thinking, but too scared to do. He went out to the streets of Vedado and using ETECSA's wifi connection, spoke freely via Facebook Live about the decades of repression and fear that have held the Cuban people hostage under Castro's rule. To his surprise, nobody was out there with him. It was just him and his spray can. On La Habana Libre's stone wall, he tagged, "El Sexto" and beneath it, "Se fue."

Hours later, La Seguridad del Estado broke into his apartment. The landlady downstairs gave the government officials the key, letting them break in to this peaceful artist's home. Over the phone with his fiance, Alexandra Martinez, he shouted, "They're taking me, they're taking me!"

Since that morning on November 26, Danilo has been taken to 5 different holding centers:

1. Police Station in La Lisa- where he was beaten and dragged across the floor
2. Police Station in Guanabacoa- beaten repeatedly by police officers and his food was poisoned with sleeping pills. He has since refused to eat any food given to him inside the prison.
3. Police Station Zapata y C
4. VIVAC- a processing detention center where he was denied phone calls after reporters began asking to speak with him.
5. Valle Grande Prison- where he was held in solitary confinement for 3 days to avoid suspected protests on International Human Rights day. Later, his fiance was denied visitation access under suspicions that she was not actually his fiance. He was quickly taken away.




6. El Combinado del Este Prison- a maximum security prison. He was beaten gagged while stripped of his clothing upon arrival. There is no sunlight, or running water. His space is filled with roaches and there is so much humidity that water drips onto his bed at night. His asthma and allergies have quickly worsened, but he was denied his preventative medicine.
Any prisoner who associates with Danilo is subject to being strip searched. No letters are allowed to be exchanged and all visits with Danilo must be approved by El Jefe Rodolfo.


Danilo's living conditions at the moment are inhumane. He has contracted a Cuban lawyer who has
had access to his "expediente" but his loved ones have yet to see it. He is allegedly being held under an accusation of damaging state property, at worst a 100 fine in Cuban pesos, but Danilo says officials in the prison tell him he will be tried for threatening"la seguridad del estado".

In the wake of Danilo's unjust incarceration, Cuban graffiteros have taken to the streets and begun tagging "Free El Sexto". But, the Cuban government has no sympathy for solidarity: His sister, Indira Maldonado Machado, has been taken in for questioning at the local police station, and his good friend Yordany Fonseca was taken off the street and interrogated for 2 hours under suspicion that they are behind the graffitis.

Most recently, sis mother and fiance both received an alarming phone call Thursday, 1/13 in which Danilo said he fears that he will be executed. This is psychological torture and more than ever, it is imperative that we continue demanding this peaceful artist's immediate liberation.