Cuba Puts Punk Rocker on Trial

Denounce communists and face prosecution. Sounds like an omen of things to come in an Obama administration.

Cuba is to charge a punk rocker today with "social dangerousness" because his songs denounce and deride the communist government.

Gorki Aguila, lead singer of Porno para Ricardo, faces up to four years in prison for openly defying the revolution and scorning Fidel and Raul Castro as "geriatrics".

The 39-year-old has been in police custody since Monday and was due to appear at the Playa municipal court in western Havana to be charged with subverting "communist morality".

The case has triggered protests from artists and human rights groups. Supporters were due yesterday to assemble at Havana's Malecón promenade to protest. "We invite everyone to gather and shout Gorki," said the band's website.

Police arrested Aguila at his home where he was completing a new album provisionally called Geriatric Central Committee, a reference to the ageing leadership.

Formed 10 years ago as part of an underground music movement, Porno para Ricardo is banned from official airwaves.

Funny, but I haven't heard a peep from Democrats about this all week during their Denver lovefest. Probably because they're busy trying to silence critics under threat of prosecution.

"These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail."

More on Gorki at Babalu.