A man made famous for jumping into a video while it was being shot on the streets of Havana and pleading for food has been arrested, according to the Miami Herald.
"What we need here is a little bit of jama [Cuban slang for food]!" Juan Carlos González Marcos yelled, pushing the interviewee out of the way. Seconds later, he jumps back into the frame and screams again, "We're under fire here! Go ahead and tape me! Jama!''
The video surfaced on YouTube, receiving more than 400,000 hits.
Two more videos eventually surfaced - one in which González took back everything he said before and announced that he was "under fire," and another in which he raps about being put away by the police - and days later, he was arrested on charges of "pre-criminal social endangerment" and sentenced to two years in prison.
"This incident was unexpected and came as a surprise because the protagonist was not a political dissident nor a person trying to defend a position or gain popularity,'' Jorge Salcedo, who is promoting Jama y Libertad, an organization advocating González's freedom, told the Miami Herald.
The site has collected more than 728 signatures so far, including those of Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater, Cuban musician Paquito D'Rivera, author Zoe Valdés and dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez.
Details about González's background are few, but include that he lives in a hut with his mother, brother and sister, has two children who don't live with him, and he may have once been a machinist with the Merchant Navy or a member of the Special Troops of the Interior Ministry.
"This is a case of clear political intention," said Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation president Elizardo Sánchez, who has offered González's family legal counsel, "and it only shows how scared the government is of anything that could cause street unrest.''
