Cuban freedom activist and longtime contributor to the Observers Yoani Sanchez wrote a post about Pánfilo's story on her blog, Generación Y. Read the English version below, or click here to read the original Spanish text.

He could have been an alcoholic lying on a street corner sleeping off his inebriation, like so many others in this city, but he wanted to make his voice heard.  He jumped in front of a camera and cried for food which, along with yearning for change, has become a national obsession in Cuba.  His spontaneity, and the emphasis he gave to asking for "grub" has turned the brief video of Juan Carlos, alias Pánfilo or 'Dimwit', into a "superhit" on the alternative information networks.  I don't remember other visual material that has gone viral so quickly in our society, not even the video of Eliécer Ávila versus Ricardo Alarcón from last year.

Pánfilo realised, a few days after the video began circulating, that his outburst had given him away.  His words were like a red circle around his head, a lighted announcement at the entrance to his house, or a finger pointed at his life.  The magnifying glass of power, which hangs over us all, focused on him and begin to highlight his weak spots.  It surfaced that he had no job, had been prosecuted for theft and probably bought rum on the black market - small "crimes" that we Cubans commit every day to survive or escape. Because he took off his mask and spoke sincerely in front of the microphone, he began feeling the scalpel of repression slashing through his existence.

I wasn't surprised at the news that they found Pánfilo to be a criminal and charged him with "pre-criminal dangerousness", for which he was given two years in prison.  The judicial process must have sobered him up faster than a bucket of cold water and an extremely strong coffee.  Although there is still the possibility of appealing this decision before the court, he's unlikely to get off without punishment because it is lesson aimed not only at him.  If they don't condemn him, who will prevent the corner alcoholics and the neighborhood drunks, from standing in front of a camera and starting to shout for everything we lack: Food! Future! Freedom!"

Spoof campaign poster with Pánfilo as a candidate, by Alen Lauzàn. The slogan plays on the pun between jama (food) and jamàs (never) and reads: "Panfilo will never (food) be beaten!" It is a reference to the Cuban revolutionary slogan "El pueblo unido jamàs serà vencido" (The people, united, will never be beaten).