Paquito D'Rivera Urges Chico Buarque to Recognize Imprisoned Grammy Winner in Cuba

Renowned Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera delivered a strong message to Brazilian singer-songwriter Chico Buarque during an interview with CiberCuba, stating, "Someone tell Chico Buarque there's a Grammy winner imprisoned in Cuba."

D'Rivera's remarks refer to Maykel Osorbo (Maykel Castillo Pérez), a Cuban rapper and co-author of the song "Patria y Vida," which garnered two Latin Grammy Awards in November 2021 for Best Urban Song and Song of the Year. Osorbo was detained by Cuba's State Security since May of that same year.

"Maykel Osorbo is jailed for singing. Why is Chico Buarque reluctant to understand this? Has no one informed him that a Grammy awardee is imprisoned for performing a song the government disapproved of?" D’Rivera questioned with clear frustration.

In June 2022, Osorbo was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of contempt, assault, public disorder, and defamation, and he is currently serving his sentence at the maximum-security Kilo 5 y Medio prison in Pinar del Río.

Silence from Fellow Musicians

The musician, who boasts a career spanning over 70 years and 18 Grammy Awards, criticized Silvio Rodríguez for his complicit silence, asking, "Why doesn't Silvio tell Chico Buarque this? Because he knows."

This challenge to Silvio came days after the Cuban troubadour received a symbolic replica of an AKM rifle at an official ceremony led by Díaz-Canel, having previously declared on his blog his desire for the weapon to "confront" a potential U.S. intervention.

"After he gives him a shooting lesson with his AKM, he should inform Chico Buarque that people are incarcerated for singing and protesting," D'Rivera remarked with irony.

D'Rivera also spotlighted the plight of a 16-year-old from Morón imprisoned by the regime, saying, "There’s a boy, a 16-year-old from Morón, imprisoned for sabotage. His 'sabotage' was shouting down with the dictatorship."

The saxophonist was blunt in his assessment of the musical community's response to repression in Cuba: "Musicians haven't done enough for Cuba's freedom. That's the truth."

A Call for Action

To highlight this silence, D'Rivera cited Martin Luther King Jr.: "What hurts me most is not the malice of the wicked, but the silence of the good. And among those are many of us, many musicians, many good compatriots, but in silence."

The interview with journalist Tania Costa occurred a day after Díaz-Canel gave his first interview to a U.S. television network, NBC News' Meet the Press, hosted by Kristen Welker, where the leader refused to resign and questioned whether the inquiry came from the State Department.

D'Rivera described the Cuban political situation as a "tragicomic comedy" and expressed hope for the regime's eventual downfall, drawing parallels to the collapse of the Soviet Union: "What began must end. I am convinced something has to happen."

He also commented on his desire for Cubans to reject "the joke" Americans played in Venezuela, alluding to the transition led by Maduro's right-hand, Delcy Rodriguez.

Exiled since May 1980 after seeking asylum during a tour with Irakere at Madrid's Barajas airport, D'Rivera stressed that any transition must involve a genuine change of power: "The same people who destroyed it cannot rebuild it because they don’t know how."

Chico Buarque, the 81-year-old Brazilian singer-songwriter and an iconic figure of Latin American leftism, has not publicly commented on the repression in Cuba or the case of Maykel Osorbo.