Earlier this week, Amnesty International issued an urgent call for the release of Cuban graffiti and performance artist Danilo Maldonado Machado, also known as El Sexto. Timing the plea to coincide with the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and naming Maldonado a “prisoner of conscience,” the human rights organization’s Americas Deputy Director for Research Carolina Jiménez said Maldonado’s detention “shows … that while Raúl Castro shakes hands with the world in his historic visit to the USA, things have hardly changed in Cuba, where people are still being thrown in jail solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression.”