HAVANA – Public art work completed on Saturday turned the corner of Muralla and Vernaza in Old Havana into an ideal selfie zone for those who are unhappy with President Donald Trump.
The highly-trafficked corner is a couple of blocks from the Capitol, and is also a meeting point for fruit vendors. Tourist and locals are taking pictures of art work before the government removes it.
The work was reminiscent of Comedian Kathy Griffin’s decapitation parody gone wrong. She has since apologized for posing with a fake head of Trump.
"I think it might represent a sentiment that's here in Cuba especially when you compare it to the things that Obama was doing versus what Trump has recently started undoing," said Michael Rekab, a tourist from Ireland.
Cubanet, an independent local news outlet, published a video of the artist they identified as Fabian Lopez while he was painting his depiction of a decapitated Trump. The graffiti writer is better known as 2+2=5.
Earlier this year, Global Street Art reported finding the graffiti writer in Havana and identified a man with the "2+2=5" tattoo on his right shoulder as "Marti." The artist said he had been spray painting for about six years and had recently started to sell his work.
"They do not want us to know, so we must solve the equation ourselves," the artist told Global Street Art about the meaning of his pseudonym."To be free, we must be free of the reality that is not reality."
Havana resident Rodolfo Oriol said the work bothered him. Although he believes Trump is ruining U.S.-Cuba relations, he thinks the artist should not be expressing this on a public venue.
“The messages against politicians are sometimes disrespectful,” Oriol said.
Cuban authorities imprisoned Danilo Maldonado, better known as “El Sexto,” for graffiti that they felt disrespected the memory of Fidel Castro. In Cuba, there are laws against counter-revolutionary behavior that limit freedom of expression.
Maldonado celebrated the death of Fidel Castro last year with a "He is gone" graffiti on the wall of the Havana Libre Hotel and a video. The courageous self-expression of joy was enough for Cuban authorities to keep him behind bars for 55 days.