A Cuban YouTuber who rose to fame for his parody videos exposing the island’s growing economic crisis in the style of Discovery Channel documentaries says he’s being silenced.
Eddy Ceballos has been shedding light on Havana’s crumbling infrastructure — everything from decaying buildings and mounting trash dumps to seismic potholes.
And he narrates his videos in the deadpan style of wildlife documentary hosts like David Attenborough to document the realities of life under the communist regime.
Ceballos, 38, had handcuffs slapped on him in Havana Monday during a dramatic police raid near his home. The influencer remains jailed at a criminal investigation unit since — but still hasn’t been formally charged with a crime.
“I have been silenced,” Ceballos said in a video message to his countrymen recorded weeks prior to his arrest, after he was served a police summons.
“I have been separated from my home, my family, and my daughter — demonstrating once again the true character of the Cuban government, which shows that there is not the slightest shred of freedom of expression or respect for human rights,” he said.
“What is happening to me is a total injustice.”
Ceballos’ YouTube channel, “Despingovery Channel,” a wordplay on the Discovery Channel, went viral last year after a video that satirically described Havana’s potholes as “natural wonders worthy of scientific study.”
He’s been a thorn in the Cuban regime’s side since. But it was a May 24 video, where he filmed a rusty Cold War-era military munition left abandoned in a field, that led to his arrest.
“An air-to-ground missile from approximately the 1960s, from the Cold War,” he said in the video, which garnered 68,000 views on YouTube and 750 comments.
“I can’t stop being amazed by the things I find completely forgotten.”
His video comes in sharp contrast to those released by the Cuban government, which for months has issued military propaganda to show its combat readiness as tensions mount with the US.
Prosecutors have threatened to charge Ceballos with “revealing military secrets” or “illegal entry into a military facility,” according to his family.
“That is a crime that does not exist in the military or civil code,” Ceballos’ lawyer Alain Espinosa told the Miami Herald.
“To keep him detained for more than 24 hours they should have formally charged him, and they should inform him of the alleged crime and the elements supporting that accusation.”
Ceballos is the latest in a string of Cubans arrested for documenting the deteriorating conditions on the island.
Anyelo Ramírez Martínez, 24, was arrested in March after filming authorities removing anti-government graffiti on the street. His trial begins next week, where prosecutors are seeking a four-year prison stint.
Influencer Anna Bensi, 21, who shares videos critical of communist society, was put under house arrest in March and denied internet access.
“Do not let them die, do not let them be forgotten,” Ceballos said of other political prisoners in Cuba.
“We must fight this battle.”
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