Randy ARTEAGA RIVERA

Musician and rapper Randy Arteaga Rivera continued serving a five-year prison sentence in prison camp ‘La Guanajera’ at the end of the year. He was arrested on 11 July 2021 in Santa Clara province while participating in peaceful protests against restrictions on rights, scarcity of food and medicines, and the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, popularly known as the #11J protests. He was violently dragged into a police bus in the street. In April 2022, he was sentenced for the alleged crimes of ‘contempt’ and ‘public disorder’. His family deny that he was a ringleader of the demonstration. He was fired from his job as a security guard after his arrest. (See Case List 2023/2024) 

Randy Arteaga Rivera, born on 3 December 1990 and better known as Randy AR, is a musician and rapper whose songs criticise repression and the social situation in Cuba. 

Update: Randy Arteaga Rivera was conditionally released on 16 January 2025 following negotiations between the USA, the Vatican and Cuba.