Cuban appeals 2-year sentence for drunken protest

[Bacchus39]

Cuban appeals 2-year sentence for drunken protest

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090910/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_jailed_protester

Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer –
HAVANA – A Cuban who was arrested for a drunken outburst in which he complained about hunger on the island appeared in court Thursday to appeal his two-year sentence for an incident that has made him an Internet celebrity.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez Marcos, known by the nickname Panfilo, appeared obviously inebriated when he burst into an interview for a documentary on Cuban music waving his arms and screaming, "What we need here is a little bit of chow."

Video of his rant turned up on YouTube, where it has been seen more than 450,000 times since it was posted in April. It has also become a rallying cry for exile groups in South Florida, where some hail him as one of the few Cubans who dare speak frankly about the difficulties of daily life.

Gonzalez Marcos was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison on a charge of "dangerousness," said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

In a second video posted on YouTube, Gonzalez Marcos expresses regret that his outburst was used for political ends.

Gonzalez Marcos' attorney, appearing at a central Havana court on Thursday, declined comment on the appeal and would not say when a decision was expected.

Two Western diplomats tried to observe the appeal proceedings, but said they were asked to leave before they began. The two, who spoke on condition they not be named due to their governments' rules, told The Associated Press they waited more than two hours but were eventually informed by court authorities that the process was open to the public but only a Cuban public, not an international one.

Cuba tolerates no official opposition, and the island's dissidents and activists have little organized following, though infighting and disputes are common.

[Mika]

1. Elizardo Sanchez said that Gorki was arrested for the same thing. Wasn't true.

The usual AP "some people say" yellow journalism on Cuba. Unreliable. Deeply biased. Tainted. Worthless.

[struggle4progress]

2. US drug offenders may also earn lengthy sentences. And I believe that in some US jurisdictions,

you can be incarcerated a year or longer for repeated public intoxication. Internet searching indicates the person in question was intoxicated in public on several different occasions. The question of how to treat persons with substance abuse problems is unresolved: at one point, we confined drunkards to asylums. I regard US drug laws as grossly unfair to offenders, and it seems very odd to regard a Cuban drunkard as a political offender if we do not regard US drug offenders the same way

[Billy Burnett]

3. All true, but we have no idea what actually happened.

As Mika points out, there are no reliable sources to be read on this. It's not like any government issues press releases over every person questioned or incarcerated and we don't even know if this person even was. We have to take Elizardo Sanchez' word on this, again - as it seems the media mouthpieces seem to have - never mind that he has deliberately lied as a media/political stunt in previous so called "dangerousness" arrest fabrications.

[struggle4progress]

4. ... A third video was played later on Miami's Channel 41-AmericaTeVé, showing him drunk again,

dancing .. on the street, and saying the police were going to put him 'away'... González lives .. with his mother ... Sources in his neighborhood say he has two minor children, who are not under his custody ... "
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/1222415.html

Strictly speaking, you're right to say we don't know anything about this case. But if, within a month or two, several videos become available internationally showing an otherwise unknown person out-of-control drunk in public, it's probably a good guess that person has a serious drinking problem