Letter to Fernando Rojas, Cuba’s Vice-Minister of Culture

The first group of artists to plant themselves in front of the Ministry of Culture on November 27. (Reynier Leyva Novo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Ines Casal, Havana, December 7, 2020 — Fernando: If you find it disrespectful for me to address a letter to you in this way, I ask your pardon. And I assure you, I do it this way because I have no other way to communicate with you. Who knows if you won’t read this thing I write, either, but “just because my message might never be received doesn’t mean it’s not worth sending.”

I also apologize for addressing you informally as “Tú”, but this “letter” is addressed to the human being I met years ago (although maybe you don’t remember me), and not the official you are today. And I have a hard time treating you as a “you” [the more formal “Usted”], when I met you as Fernandito, as your parents called you. I trust you don’t see it badly either.

I know the lineage from where you come. Your parents were my co-workers, my bosses and my friends for a long time at the University of Havana. Your father, Fernando Rojas, Rector of the UH for several years, was an upright and honest man, who dedicated his whole life to his country and his Revolution, who educated, together with sweet Fefa, four children with a sense of truth and honesty, first and foremost. Although some wretched people (there always are) may have criticized him and even charged him for some “human weaknesses,” but never of being corrupt or opportunistic. continue reading

But since as I know your family well, you may have forgotten where he comes from and who my son Julius César Llópiz Casal is.

My son also comes from upright, honest parents who gave all their strength, all their energies, all their knowledge, all their revolutionary dreams to the UH and to their country. And they also educated their two children to respect truth and decorum, which is what people have when they don’t hide what they think.

I know what the duties of a post or a party are. I was a militant of the PCC [Partido Comunista de Cuba, the Communist Party of Cuba] for almost 30 years, and I was conscientious, because I believed in the Revolution, from the heart. Although for years I have felt betrayed in my purest dreams. But no office, no party position made me lie or betray my conscience. Luckily, I was always surrounded by colleagues who were able to discuss what we didn’t understand. When I felt betrayed by the Revolution (because it wasn’t me who did the betraying), I just stopped believing in it.

My son, Fernando, is not a terrorist, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, doesn’t seek to destabilize the system, let alone incite a popular uprising, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, is not manipulated, managed, paid for by any foreign government, by any organization, by any means of the press, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, is not a criminal, he is a Cuban artist who also works by Cuba and for Cuba, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, says what he thinks, anywhere and under any circumstance, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, is a good man, and you know it.

That is why, from the bottom of my heart, I ask you to try, now from your duty as an official, in time to put a stop to a defamatory and cowardly campaign that has broken out in the official media against peaceful people who have only wanted to be heard. This media circus can have unimaginable and terrible consequences.

And that, Fernando, you also know.

With all my respect and consideration, Inés Casal Enríquez.

Ed. note: This letter was originally published in the social network Facebook.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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‘The Counterrevolution Sneaked Into the Fabric of the Culture’, Complains Abel Prieto

The Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, admitted that the meeting was taking place as a result of the protests on November 27. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 December 2020 — Actor Reinier Díaz and some other artists who attended last Saturday’s meeting with officials from the Ministry of Culture deny the interpretation that the official press is giving of what happened at the Abelardo Estorino theater. There were forceful interventions in favor of the San Isidro Movement and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, until officialdom led by Abel Prieto took control of the situation

“The meeting started very well, people with tough ideas, without skimping,” Reinier Díaz tells 14ymedio. “The first to speak was Humberto Díaz, a visual artist who read the demands of 27N [for ’November 27th’] and put the meeting in context.” According to the actor, the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, admitted that the meeting was taking place as a result of the protests on November 27.

The actor describes as “wonderful” the intervention of the theater director Carlos Celdrán, who criticized the “digital blackout” after the protests and described it as “fascism.” He also denounced the acts of repudiation, something that has been very present in his work. continue reading

“From my intervention the newscast only took the presentation, they did not put the heart of my speech, not even when I assumed responsibility for the 30 who participated in the first meeting (with Vice Minister Fernando Rojas) and signed the letter (with the conditions for the next meeting that did not occur),” laments the interviewee. “I spoke as part of the [group of] 30 and said that we are totally opposed to acts of repudiation, police repression, constant violations of the Constitution by the Ministry of the Interior, which acts outside the law, and how many people in the group had agents standing outside their houses to prevent them from leaving,” he notes.

Diaz relates that the most critical interventions occurred, one after another, at the beginning of the meeting. “Lots of people lashed out at the media.” An art critic vindicated the talent of Otero Alcántara and denounced the smear campaign that was being carried out against him “without giving anything conclusive, not even a piece of information, neither proof nor a conviction in hand.”

Another of those present referred to the “evident manipulation of the press media” and the way in which material about the San Isidro Movement and ’27N’ is published. In addition, he rejected police violence in his country.

In another intervention, singer Jesus Barrios said that the security forces doused him with a spray to prevent him from approaching the Ministry of Culture on the day of the protests. Reinier Díaz himself reported that his partner suffered a similar attack and got dermatitis caused by the same product.

What had been going well until then took a turn when another young man, whom Díaz says he does not know, intervened and “began to talk about the Revolution and express himself in a tone that was like a small act of repudiation.” Although the actor repeatedly asked to speak, he wasn’t able to speak again.

“There began the speech of those who assume the critical attitude but from the position of a revolutionary. They spoke of the mercenaries, the annexationists, the flag, the financing and the millions that the United States pays. And even the last speaker ended up offering an ode to the Revolution and said that we are the last socialist bastion in the world and that we cannot lose it.”

In his telling, Díaz also refers to the attitude of Abel Prieto (president of Casa de las Américas), who practically “recognized that the Revolution has to defend itself and that acts of repudiation must be carried out.” The counterrevolution sneaked into the fabric of culture (…) We mixed one thing with the other and in a really perverse situation’, he said at one point.”

For Reinier Díaz, the most clarifying moment of the meeting occurred when Prieto asked if it was necessary to let as many people come out to shout out in the street with the San Isidro Movement, even if there were hundreds.

“Many of us said yes, like Celdrán, Humberto Díaz or me, although others were silent; but Prieto continued with his speech. I believe that they are not prepared for a dialogue. They do not understand that if they want people to trust them they have to tell everything that was said there and not just part of it. The news program blatantly lies, Carlos Celdrán told him several times.”

Díaz was not the only one present to react negatively against what has transpired since the meeting. The director Joseph Ross has expressed his discontent on social networks. “I regret that reports in the media (the official media and the non-official), until now, are so superficial (…). I hope that the press in the next few hours will take a responsible attitude with respect to everything that has been said in these seven hours and and give wide and transparent coverage to all the opinions,” he wrote. The director believes that, although the meeting could have been more plural, there was a clear message that the officials needed to hear.

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Pinar del Rio’s Tobacco Growers Foresee a Bad Harvest Due to Excessive Rains

The fields of Pinar de Río were flooded by the rains linked to Hurricanes Delta and Eta. (Telepinar)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 7 December 2020 — The bad news is piling up in Cuba. One of the most emblematic products of the Island, tobacco, does not promise a good harvest after the blows of Hurricane Eta flooded the fields of Pinar del Río, where 70% of the country’s leaf is usually grown. In October there was twice the rains because of a previous storm, Delta.

As a result, the authorities have been forced to deduct 3,500 hectares from the 19,700 of the initial plan. And it remains to be seen if even that figure will be reached, as the damage caused and the delay make it an almost impossible effort to meet the plan.

Tobacco is a huge source of income for a government that cannot afford to lose any more dollars now. Only last year, the profit from tobacco exports was almost 270 million dollars, somewhat better than the previous year but far from the 400 million dollars reported in 2017. continue reading

Joel Hernández, director of the Integral and Tobacco Company of Pinar del Río, has indicated that of the 4,000 hectares initially planned in the province, the total has been reduced to 3,400 and only half can be planted before the end of the year. The delay has consequences, according to the producers themselves, since it implies leaving too much product to be sown for January and February, which in turn delays the harvest until April, a month complicated by pests and adverse weather.

Just one of those fears materialized for the tobacco growers of the Hoyo de Monterrey, a place that is considered the epicenter of the best tobacco grown in Cuba and one of the highest quality in the world. Producers in the area were severely affected by the constant rains left by Hurricane Eta in early November, a time when the seedlings are at their most fragile stage.

“Everything we flooded, lost more than half of the positions and surviving longer give you a snuff of the highest quality because they suffered a lot , ” he told 14ymedio Jose Carlos, a tobacco of the municipality whose family has been dedicated to the cultivation almost a century. “This is very bad news because we depend on tobacco to survive,” he adds.

Tobacco, like coffee, sugar cane, potatoes and cocoa are a commercial monopoly of the State. The farmers can cultivate these crops but they are obliged to sell them to the official entities that distribute and export them. A damaged crop can mean the loss of most of the income for farmers who are practically exclusively dedicated to tobacco.

“We are trying to go against the clock and re-plant seedlings but the rains have continued, the land is quite flooded and this is already late for tobacco, it won’t be able to reach the height or the quality of the leaf that is needed for the more select cigars,” explains Urbano, José Carlos’ father and a man with extensive experience in the cultivation of the so-called layer leaves, which are grown in covered tobacco fields.

“It is not only what was lost in plantings, but time. When the downpours began we had everything organized, the day laborers hired and the whole family ready to tend the crops but now the calendar is stuck on Christmas and hiring people in these times is more expensive and difficult,” explains Urbano to this newspaper.

“There are years that we caught the train in good time, but this year, the train has left the station without us. What remains is to try not to lose the work already done and to continue taking care of the plants even if we know it will not be a good harvest,” he says . “I think that the flowers and papayas that we have planted in part of the farms are the ones that will guarantee us a plate of food next year, because the tobacco is not going to be there.”

Of more than 7,000 hectares that should have been planted at the end of November, only 1,289 were planted. In addition, 12,000 seedbeds were completely ruined by the rains and another 16,000 were partially damaged. Faced with this situation, the Government has praised the 16 hour marathon days being put in by producers and calls for the voluntary effort of the people of Pinar del Río — “appealing to the 16,000 yoke of oxen existing in the province” — to arrive at figures that allow one to maintain certain levels of optimism.

Despite several testimonies from optimistic farmers cited by the state newspaper Granma, the newspaper does not hide the bad situation. Virginio Morales, who has been a specialist in the Tabacuba Business Group for 47 years, explained to the official press that it is not strange that the consequences of a meteorological phenomenon seriously affect the Cuban fields but admits that he has never seen such a case. “We have not had any like this one, because the events have been consecutive,” he told the official press.

Nelson Rodríguez, a Doctor of Science and director of the San Juan and Martínez Tobacco Experimental Station, also told Granma that the damage is greater than usual. “November is the optimal month for sowing, and it was hardly possible to take advantage of it,” he explains. “As we move away from the optimal period, the quality suffers.”

José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, recently visited the area to see the damage caused by the hurricane, where he saw that work was being done to make up for lost time, but urged better use of the land and increasing the production of food without harming tobacco.

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“You Should Be the Ones Talking to Us, Not State Security”

More than 300 Cuban artists and intellectuals gathered at the doors of the Ministry of Culture on November 27. (Reynier Leyva Novo)
More than 300 Cuban artists and intellectuals gathered at the doors of the Ministry of Culture on November 27. (Reynier Leyva Novo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 December 2020 — The following document is the result of comparing the notes taken by various people who were present and what was remembered by the participants. Published on the Facebook Page 27N (for ‘November 27’) , it is reproduced with their permission. They point out that “there were more statements in the meeting, but here we have tried to summarize the essence of what happened that day in a small theater of the Ministry of Culture.”

[Fernando Rojas, Vice Minister of Culture, welcomes them and gives them the floor.]

[Michel Matos, representing the San Isidro Movement (MSI), demands respect and transparency; talks about the suffering of the MSI.]

State Security has taken over the country, they treat us in a military way and we are civilians, we have been mistreated by them, arrested, repressed, beaten, summoned, they have put us in house arrest, they take away our internet connection and everything without a legal document. This is not acceptable. What is happening is inadmissible. The hunger strike started by some of the members of the San Isidro Movement has been the result of desperation. We are totally helpless and we have been completely alone.

You should be the ones talking to us, not State Security. continue reading

We are not mercenaries, terrorists or criminals, we are Cubans. We feel the need to participate in our nation

We demand a fair process for Denis Solís. Denis Solís has had all his rights violated. Anamely Ramos went to the police station to ask for Denis Solís, to do a completely legal procedure, and they arrested her. How is it possible that these things happen? And we’ve all been suffering from this kind of thing.

What country are we living in? What are we becoming? We are all Cubans, even if we disagree. This is our homeland, our country. We were born here.

Cuba has a long tradition of dissent. A country cannot run like a military camp runs, and this is what we are seeing. We are desperate. The official media themselves are manipulating reality, they are putting on a show.

Moment in which thirty artists left the Ministry of Culture, who spent almost five hours meeting with Vice Minister Fernando Rojas. (14 and a half)
Moment in which thirty artists left the Ministry of Culture, who spent almost five hours meeting with Vice Minister Fernando Rojas. (14ymedio)

We are at a point of demanding the elementary freedoms that we should all have. Censorship of individuality is being exacerbated. We demand respect for our individuality. We are not mercenaries, terrorists or criminals, we are Cubans. We feel the need to participate from our nation.

For two years we have waited for a response from the Ministry of Culture for the debate and opposition generated by Decree 349 . They are not respecting us, they are not listening to us. We are not criminals, we are creators. If you think that we are having fun and that this is a show, you are wrong. This is not a show.

State Security, if it persists in its criminal methods, will create a truly dramatic reality. If those forces are running the nation today, they are mortgaging the future.

We want a healthy, sovereign Cuba, a prosperous and free Cuba.

State Security is violating even the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. When you resort to criminal methods you are criminal

[Katherine Bisquet reads the demands:]

-Review and transparency of the judicial process against Denis Solís.

-Liberty for Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

-Right to have rights, freedom of expression, free creation and dissent.

-Cessation of harassment, defamation and discredit by the official media.

-Recognition and respect for independent positioning.

-No more police violence, no more political hatred.

Let love and poetry unite this people.

[Fernando Rojas takes note.]

Mauricio Mendoza : I am concerned about the treatment given to independent journalists, that you do not include us, you do not give us space to express ourselves, or to be able to show a reality that is not the one shown in [the State newspapers] Granma or Juventud Rebelde.

We do not agree with the Government, so what?

Thanks to many independent media, the things that are happening in Cuba are known.

I do not understand how a person can be judged so easily, that he is so easily accused of being a mercenary and that the institutions that accuse him never retract

We deserve and have the right to work.

[The Diario de Cuba journalist also speaks of the recognition of the independent press, of the right to participate in these debates and to document. Also of the blockades of the independent media in Cuba; the need for freedom of expression and the right to exercise the profession, as well as the discredit suffered by independent journalists in the official press.]

Daniel Díaz Mantilla : We must remember the years prior to the founding of the Ministry of Culture: it arose at a time when dialogue seemed impossible to establish a communication channel between creators and the Government. And that has not been done. The lack of dialogue between the Institution and the artistic community continues. We must put an end to the lack of communication between artists and Culture officials that has existed for years.

We are not enemies, we have to find common ground to dialogue. There is no need to antagonize, you have to listen. Your job is to dialogue with other government bodies, that is your function: to find ways for us to exist.

What I see in these muchachos is the same as I experienced in the nineties and early 2000s: censorship, suspicion, distrust, abuses. The reality is changing and it is something that some do not want to see. We must find a way to build a healthy and constructive dialogue. We must prevent the use of criminal methods to treat Cuban society.

We made a new Constitution and the right of these people, which is constitutional, is not being respected. State Security is violating even the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. When you resort to criminal methods you are criminal and when the State resorts to criminal methods, that State is also criminal.

What was it fought for? What was so much fighting for? Trust is achieved over time, but the criminal is not admissible.

Those laws are the ones that defend us, those that take care of us, but State Security comes with a force that makes the best young people leave, those who do not have the courage to say what they think remain.

I have my opinions, some decisions I do not share, but I am grateful that there is a State. But, now, State Security is taking actions that are not consistent with its role and with total impunity, they sow fear, destroy friendships, families… None of us here are taking positions that threaten sovereignty, far from it.

I do not understand how a person can be judged so easily, that he is so easily accused of being a mercenary and that the institutions that accuse him never back down. You have a responsibility in this happening.

Those laws are the ones that defend us, those that take care of us, but State Security comes with a force that makes the best young people leave, those who do not have the courage to speak their minds remain. You have to have the courage to say what you think in this country, as we are now saying what we think.

Honor the reasons why you exist as an Institution.

Yunior García : The congresses of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba [Uneac] have been a theater. I went to the congress of the FEEM [Federation of High School Students] and there the topics that each person should speak were chosen. It is also a staging.

This year has not been gray, it has been black, because of the senseless censorship. Let us remember the case of Pedro Junco , recently expelled from Uneac for political reasons. There is also the case of Aparicio.

It cannot be allowed that I am being censored for giving an interview for CiberCuba.

Fighting censorship is exhausting. I have the right to say what I think. It cannot be that an artist is demonized for thinking differently, he is treated like a criminal, his dignity is violated, half truths are told and he is defamed in the press. The official press, by not telling reality, is denying something that the whole world already knows from the independent media and the foreign press. Not showing the true Cuban reality or hiding it is lying.

We demand respect for the dignity of artists, not censorship or discrimination for political reasons. Understand that this youth is not the same as it was years ago.

Cuba is a country that is fooling itself and nobody believes it anymore. The mechanisms that were used yesterday no longer work. Enough of that lousy staging.

If a crime is committed, ok. But no one can censor a work for being political, if they do not agree, do their own. Political ideas are fought with ideas, not with censorship or jail.

We must repeal [Decrees] 349 and 370, which violate our rights.

Fernando Rojas : That is not the spirit of this table.

Yunior García : We have had it worse since the last UNEAC congress.

The statement of the AHS [Hermanos Saíz Association] is disastrous, it does not recognize the opinion of its own associates. It cannot be that you are more like the UJC [Union of Young Communists] than us. It’s a cheo [ridiculous, outdated] speech , we have to end chealdad. It is not necessary to defend this or another specific ideology, but to have diversity. The diverse Cuba is not reflected in the official press or in the institutions.

Cuba is a country that is fooling itself and nobody believes it anymore. The mechanisms that were used yesterday no longer work. Enough of that lousy staging

Those who left the UNEAC Congress, when they came back in the bus, were very happy. And now they are disappointed.

They have to stop seeing us as enemies. We are not. We are Cubans who think differently.

Juan Pin Vilar : I have found myself in a terrible situation. How is it possible that these people who are here and that I do not know are right and you [he says addressing the officials], who are my friends, are not right?

These people have a play. Nobody has the right to say who is an artist. Everything we have seen here is the result of the inefficiency of the Ministry of Culture. These people exist and have rights, and you are there for them.

This here is full of officials who steal. For years we have seen corruption in the institutions. How does the press not talk about it and call us mercenaries? What greater example of corruption than, for an artist to sing, you have to sign a piece of paper? An authorization to make a movie costs $400. The responsibility for this is yours.

Michel Matos, that boy that I don’t know, put on a festival [Rotilla], they take him away and end it. If they had taken it to make it better, but no, they took it away to do absolutely nothing.

I’ve known you for forty years [he says, pointing to the Ministry of Culture officials]. It is not possible that you do not understand that these people exist and have rights.

They are the reason for being of the Ministry of Culture, if it were not for them, the Ministry would have to close.

It is not necessary to defend this or another specific ideology, but to have diversity. The diverse Cuba is not reflected in the official press or in the institutions

I’ve been hearing the same for years. At the time I was at AHS, when the Paideia Project was brought in, everything was said against them. To respect yourself as an artist, sometimes you have to say: yes, I have to leave the AHS, because they are sinking another fellow artist. And that’s why I left the Association.

How is it possible that I understand these people I don’t know better than you? How is it possible that the bureaucracy has buried the San Isidro Movement?

Alfredo [Guevara] was a censor but he argued, and he did not allow the police to arrive.

Being a mercenary? Where are we going to work? I have not been able to work for ten years, and I am going to start working for Diario de Cuba.

In my life, I have hurt the Revolution. You can go to jail [referring to Denis Solís] because he committed a crime, not because he painted or made a song. Do not use the organizations, it cannot be that cuatro gatos [four cats] speak for everyone.

We are not mercenaries. There must be freedom of expression.

Gretel Medina Mendieta : We must insist on what has brought us here today, and those demands transcend creative freedom. It is the freedom that we have to exist, it is citizen freedom in general. All this transcends artistic freedom, it is the freedom that someone can express themselves freely.

Why do we come here? Because you are the ones who represent us. It cannot be that in Cuba violations of the Constitution are being committed and the institutions that represent us have not spoken. We do not feel that you represent or protect us. They have not mediated anything that has happened.

Henry Eric Hernández : “Words to the intellectuals” in the sixties, what looks so beautiful, was nothing more than a pact with guns. It was not an inclusive pact. In Cuba there have been many gray five-year periods.

Before being an artist, you are a human and a citizen.

They have to stop seeing us as enemies. We are not. We are Cubans who think differently

Our friend Italo had a pedagogical project that institutions do not have, not even the National Museum of Fine Arts. They fined him 3,000 pesos and made him destroy his garden. We waited for answers from the Ministry in the case of Italo Exposito for two years, since the meeting by Decree 349 in September 2018. Italo got tired and had to go to Europe. You mistreated him and expelled him.

Italo’s case was postponed for you, Fernando (he said looking at Rojas). He got tired of this country, of the repression of his social project, he went to Europe. We lost a colleague.

The path is not yours. In Cuba there is no art critic that questions political violence.

It seems fundamental to me that plurality does not exist here and that includes non-management from the multiparty system. These freedoms must be generated, agreed or affirmed now.

Since the eighties Fernando [Rojas] has been in cultural management and censorship. We have always seen the repression of the signatories of the Letter of the Ten, the Black SpringPaideia or Art-De… I know not to all, but to many intellectuals this repression does not seem right and we are opposed.

There are people who defend the Government before defending the citizens. With all due respect, 60 years have passed and I have been watching the same battle against censorship. The artists have had to leave.

This here is full of officials who steal. For years we have seen corruption in the institutions. How does the press not talk about it and call us mercenaries?

They will put up other political cadres, but they are 60 years of repression. I have friends in Paideia, in the Letter of theTen and they are more communist than many of those who are here [he said pointing to the table of officials].

I have a friend who had the political stigma of his father, Bernardo Marqués Ravelo, one of the signatories of the Letter of the Ten, and ended up leaving ISA [Instituto Superior de Arte]. And your father died in Miami, never being a mercenary, as you said.

We have been asking for the same thing for 60 years: inclusion, end of censorship, freedom of expression…

Their role as political actors is painful, they exercise evil, censorship and discredit. You need to finish solving this, quickly. You are old, by the law of life you are going to die. We are going to condemn them if they do nothing now and they will die as criminals. Get out of there!

When you censor a person, you go beyond cultural politics. When, from there to here, is the pressure going to stop? Do you think that is the cultural policy of the Revolution? The culture of thought will create a democracy. If you can’t handle that, get out.

Julio Llopiz-Casal : I would like to start by talking about a Cuban writer who lives in exile named Rafael Rojas, whom all of you should know, he wrote a book called Tumbas sin tranquility. This book was given to me by my father after a trip to Spain and shows a large part of the history of Cuba: it talks about Roberto Fernández Retamar, about the debates between different political parties to write the Constitution of 1940, about the diversity of opinions and the consensus…

I do not agree with Roberto Fernández Retamar, but thanks to Rafael Rojas’ dismantling, I was able to understand what he was as an intellectual.

Italo’s case was postponed for you, Fernando [he said, looking at Rojas]. He got tired of this country, of the repression of his social project, he went to Europe. We lost a colleague

I wonder, why a thinker like Rafael Rojas is not part of the compass of the historical thought of this country?

How is it possible that I had to wait for a book from Spain to fall into my lap to want to know my country, its history, to see Cuba from the heart, to be able to look at Cuba with my hand on my heart, without hates and no low feelings?

What is going to happen the day that a thousand people say “down with the Revolution,” when it is loaded with such a black story? Nothing. It is not about saying the Revolution up or down, it is about shaping a country, a country with a very sad history. It is a very sad story that has shaped this revolution.

In my family there have even been family divisions due to political issues, but in general we respect each other, and we live together despite our differences of opinion. Why can’t our country be like this?

Amaury Pacheco : The San Isidro Movement was born from an anomaly in the system: Decree 349. Since then, we have suffered the repression of the State Security and even attacks from the press. We have also faced, as part of those dark decrees, Decree Law 370 .

Decree Law 349 can work for a government, but it hurts the nation. We have said “enough” and we are assuming it. We have lit a fuse towards a national plurality.

When, from there to here, is the pressure going to stop? Do you think that is the cultural policy of the Revolution? The culture of thought will create a democracy. If you can’t handle that, get out

I was part of the Endless Poetry project and you, Fernando (addressing Rojas), took us out of the headquarters of the Casa de la Cultura in Alamar, and when we talked to you about love, about poetry, you told me, Fernando Rojas, “the order is given.”

I move from civil liberties and freedom of expression. We demand an end to the attacks and harassment of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and the MSI. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is missing, has a record of arrests and has resisted more than a person can resist. Luis is an essential point and is still missing. San Isidro is not going to turn its back.

Cuba today has a seat on the UN Human Rights Council and violates human rights. This is not understood.

Ian Benavides : The divorce between the state and society is caused by censorship. The Ministry of Culture does not recognize independent artists. This only causes the State to divorce itself from the cultural reality of society. Today there are social networks and the internet, the people sooner or later get to the content and know the reality, but if the official mass media do not accept or discredit these artists, the people end up distrusting and not taking into account those media. In the case of music, we are subject to a long bureaucracy to be able to participate in radio and television, a bureaucracy that leads to corruption.

Gretell Kairúz : I think we should talk about what unites us, and what unites us is that we love this land, Cuba, we want a society that is beautiful, prosperous. For that to exist, you need your children, each and every one of your children, my mother who was a literate and communist, and my father who was a gusano [literally ‘worm’, applied to people who left Cuba]. That is my family and also my country.

I wonder, why a thinker like Rafael Rojas is not part of the compass of the historical thought of this country?

I’m not interested in concepts. Cuba is ajiaco [a stew]. We call this polis of ours Cuba. And Cuba needs the fulfillment of each of its children. We need freedom to say and do. Something worries me a lot: What society do we have if I can’t think, say or do? In a Cuba that has a great tradition of thought, which was a light for Latin America: Martí, Varela… Those of us who are here today are the children of that tradition.

If I cannot think or do it is because I cannot dream. And yes, you can dream. I need to believe that we are capable of dreaming. All of us, those from inside and outside the country, are dreaming of Cuba. I also believe that there is no Cuba without us and without you [he says, addressing the officials].

And I ask myself: Is this the Cuba that we want to leave to our children? Dialogue and respect are needed to be able to dialogue. The Cuba that we are going to bequeath to our children is our responsibility. That is why I am sitting here.

Yunior García : I must say, I am proud to be part of this meeting. I am proud of my generation, of all of us who are here inside and of those who wait for us out there.

Tania Bruguera : I must tell you that I too am proud of you and what is happening out there.

The censorship in Cuba is also that independent art is not recognized in Cuba. I can exhibit at MoMA but not in my country. Independent art is not the enemy, it is a right; the artist is independent by nature.

I have several doubts: What is the relationship between the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Culture? Why is the Ministry of the Interior assisting me as an artist and not the Ministry of Culture?

It is not about saying up or down the Revolution, it is about shaping a country, a country with a very sad history

You cannot continue to behave as if independent art is your enemy. Why is the institution the only way to make art? See us as competition but as healthy competition.

What is the situation with independent projects? What will happen to them?

You have to be careful with the use that is given to aesthetics, because the institution uses it as a justification to censor artists. The only ones who can criticize works of art are the critics and the public, not the institution. It is not for an official to say what is or is not art, or what is good or bad art.

For 30 years I have experienced censorship in Cuba and the members of Instar [Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism] have had to face the constant repression of State Security. Security summons us and harasses us, throws acid under our doors, takes our invited foreign workshop experts to interrogation … If you want to know where the Instar money comes from, check the text I recently published for Hypermedia. Everything is totally transparent.

But if we talk about censorship, it must be said that it does not stay in Cuba, that censorship has spread abroad. I have come to artistic events in other countries where they have told me how officials from this institution have gone there to speak ill of me and other uncomfortable and critical artists, to say that we are not artists. And they do it, I know, to isolate me, to eliminate professional opportunities, it is not enough for them to censor me in my own country. By what right do they do that? This has also happened frequently with cinema: a film censored in Cuba is removed from international festivals due to the intervention of Cuban officials.

You do not have to interfere with the professional opportunities that Cuban artists have outside of Cuba, that is outside of your functions.

Fernando Pérez : I am happy to be here, for the first time I feel that here in the Ministry of Culture there is a diverse group; that’s a first step. I feel identified with many of his interventions.

We must end censorship, manipulations of the official press, acts of repudiation.

I was part of the Endless Poetry project and you, Fernando (addressing Rojas), took us out of the headquarters of the Casa de la Cultura de Alamar, and when we talked to you about love, about poetry, you told me, Fernando Rojas, “la order is given “

The history of our country has been very dark. There is a principle that must be respected, which is freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is free or it is not, and that must be applied to all spheres of reality.

I do not know if the answer will come from here, but there must be concrete answers to what has been said here. We cannot continue denying spaces. But they can’t be promises, concrete answers are needed

In the plurality and diversity is the strength of this nation.

Camila Ramírez Lobón : From the moment in which the Constitution uses the adjectives to describe the nation as Fidelista, Marxist and all that, it is clear that the only thing that is protected is the Government and anything against citizens’ rights is justified.

Today I entered here before everyone else, with Yunior, in a first meeting. And one of your officials told me something that has already been mentioned in the media, that the street belongs to the revolutionaries.

The street and public space does not belong to revolutionaries, but to all citizens born in this country. And they have to get to that understanding or at least respect it. Ideas cannot be attacked with repression. A government and politics can do it, they are not sacred. No government is sacred, they are public officials. Politics cannot be above the elementary rights of the people; that way is violence.

Today there are social networks and the internet, the people sooner or later get to the content and know the reality, but if the official mass media do not accept or discredit these artists, the people end up distrusting and not taking them into account. media

I remember a performance by Luis Manuel, Where is Mella, in which Luis disguises himself as a sculpture with Mella’s face and stands in the Manzana de Gómez as a demonstration against the removal of the sculpture that was there for the construction of the new 5 Star hotel. And the State Security and the Police go, and yourselves, and again evict Mella. What does that mean? What are they saying by that? This country is not yours, it does not belong to the government. You have to respect the word.

We are totally helpless, in the hands of State Security. How is it possible that I, an artist, 25 years old, who weighs 110 pounds, is considered a threat to State Security, simply because I do or don’t think the same as or disagree with the government? How is it possible that they send me lieutenant colonels, summons, arrest me, carry out acts of repudiation? Enough of the same speech to justify the brutality. Those they are repressing the most are those who are demonstrating through peaceful and civic means, those who are teaching how to build dissent. The other thing that is going to be left to them is repression.

Enough. No more sticks. The changes that are to come are through respect, civility.

I ask you, vice-president of the AHS [she says, addressing Yaser Toledo], do you really believe that the members of the San Isidro Movement are mercenaries? Because that’s what the statement released by the AHS says.

[Yasser Toledo does not respond. He obviously doesn’t know what to say.]

Camila Ramírez Lobón : The question is simple, yes or no?

[Yasser Toledo does not respond.]

Mijaíl Rodríguez : Do not underestimate the power of art. With these repressive actions they are showing that they are indeed afraid of art.

We here are artists, people in general. This is a hope. This moment has brought us together. Institutions force us to separate, but this moment has brought us together.

It is not for an official to say what is or is not art, or what is good or bad art

As with Cardumen , they never received us when we went to the institutions to complain. We are talking about what is happening and you are not learning. This fight did not start yesterday, it takes years.

Cuba hurts us and we care about Cuba. We have lost fear thanks to the networks. And we will be. We have to take to the streets because the small spaces that they have offered us have not solved anything for us. We are tired.

You have to get out of here with something constructive and concrete. The Government has a duty and an obligation to work for these people.

Reynier Díaz : My mother called me in fear when she found out I was here. My mother has been a revolutionary woman her whole life and now she is afraid that I am here. That means something is wrong. Fear is a lethal weapon. I’m afraid too, but here I am.

Here people have joined of their own free will. Although some have not been allowed to arrive, this morning, at 11 we were 15, now we are 300. What does this say? That despite the fear, there is a real reason, something that motivates several generations.

Ulises Padrón : Here we see a generational change.

Today there is a lot of apathy among young people for politics, for everything, and that is due to the lack of spaces for participation. There are no spaces of creation, where they feel part of something. Young people need to find that space in society.

Miryorly García Prieto : I hope this is the first of many meetings to bridge the gap between us and the institution.

It is not the first time that we address the institutions. We have to get out of here with the problems resolved. We come here with love, with the will to dialogue.

I do not know if the answer will come from here, but there must be concrete answers to what has been said here. We can’t keep denying spaces

We do not come to be defended, we have already learned to defend ourselves, but we want you to participate as well. Above all, we are here because we are giving you a chance. It is your responsibility to do the right thing for Cuban culture.

The first thing we have to do is say the right thing, tell the bosses what we think. At the moment, they are lying, defamation, crimes are being committed and, at the rate we are going, some may even die. That is the urgency.

I don’t stay at home because I feel responsible and the institutions will also be responsible for what happens.

The institutions replicate the lies of the official discourse. The media are being left as liars and unworthy, because they are not telling the truth and they are giving false news.

Tania Bruguera : We need to hear what they have to propose to us, because there are two hundred people out there waiting for answers.

Reynier Leyva Novo : Today there has been a whole police security device out there, State Security, paramilitaries dressed in civilian clothes, police patrols… That only fits in a sick mind. That is abuse of power, intimidation.

We have not left because we had the courage and we did not feel like it. Be aware of the pressure we have been under out there.

Michel Matos : The process against Denis Solís is unfair. A policeman broke into his house and it turns out that he was the one accused.

How is it possible that I, an artist, 25 years old, who weighs 110 pounds, is considered a threat to State Security, simply because I do or don’t think the same as or disagree with the government?

State Security has taken over the nation. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is on a hunger strike and has been beaten bloody. Vice Minister, beaten to the point of bleeding even while handcuffed, I have seen him. That sounds like Batista or Machado. State Security is operating above the law.

If Luis Manuel dies, he would have no words to say that we will never be able to talk again. Denis Solís has not even had rights. We are desperate.

Katherine Bisquet : I was arrested for reading poetry outside the police station at Cuba and Chacón streets. I’m here after all that, after having slept in a dungeon, after having gone on a hunger strike from which I have not yet recovered, after being about to see a person die. I am here ready to dialogue. This is not pressure, it is your responsibility. Out of respect for everyone, we need answers.

Jorge Perugorría : It is time for dialogue. This shows the diversity of thoughts. Everyone has the right to be heard. Today an important step has been taken, as the doors of this Ministry have been opened. This opportunity should not be missed by the Ministry of Culture. I think we must continue the dialogue.

Fernando Rojas says that he cannot respond immediately, he also says that he does not know anything about the military deployment around the Ministry of Culture and the peaceful protesters. He is even oblivious to all the acts of repression by State Security narrated by some of those present. Some tell him they have evidence, but he doesn’t even ask to see it. He knows, and everyone knows that he knows, even if he wants to deny it.]

Tania Bruguera : You must ask right now for the release of Luis Manuel. Call (she says to Fernando Rojas), call right now the official of the Ministry of the Interior with whom you work and ask for the freedom of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

Fernando Rojas : No, Tania, with that level of confrontation I cannot dialogue.

Juan Pin Vilar : I came here today without even knowing what these kids were demanding, but I came to support them. And I was surprised that these are who you call mercenaries. If they were really mercenaries or criminals, they would have already planted a bomb in the Ministry of Culture, as the July 26 Movement did. If they were really mercenaries and criminals, they would not ask for dialogue with you.

My mother has been a revolutionary woman her whole life and now she is afraid that I am here. That means something is wrong. Fear is a lethal weapon. I’m scared too, but here I am

You are responsible for this whole situation. You have to recognize independent artists; they have the right to express themselves, and they cannot be repressed or criminalized for that.

Miryorly García Prieto: We demand that you tell the truth as an institution. Let them say that the boys from San Isidro are artists and that they were repressed. That story is on the networks, they are being left as liars. We are not afraid nor will we ever be. If you think that giving an example, we are going to shut up, quite the opposite. We are giving you the opportunity not to lie.

And if tomorrow they fire me from work, I don’t care, I’ll start selling croquettes to support my son.

We are willing to repeat every word spoken here to anyone, even to Raúl Castro.

[Fernando Rojas evades a statement from the Ministry of Culture as an institution:]

We will come to constructive positions. I agree that human lives are sacred. We are going to be interested, in the way that we can, in the case of Denis Solís and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is on a hunger strike and has been beaten bloody. Vice Minister, beaten to the point of bleeding even while handcuffed, I have seen him. That sounds like Batista or Machado

[And he turns to Mauricio Mendoza, a journalist from Diario de Cuba who was right in front of him taking notes and says: “And don’t change a single comma, I know that Diario de Cuba has lied on some issues. He then mentions that this medium receives funding from the United States Government. Mauricio Mendoza tries to answer him and ask him a question.]

Fernando Rojas: I ask you, Mauricio, not to interview me.

I promise to continue these discussions (he says referring to the topics presented by the creators).

Mauricio Mendoza: So, the points so far are: a dialogue channel will be opened with the institutions; they will be interested in the situation of Denis Solís and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara; a work agenda will be organized with multiple proposals on topics from both parties; review the AHS statement; there will be a truce, that is, artists will be able to meet in independent spaces without being harassed.

Fernando Rojas: Meet to talk about these issues discussed here today [clarifies].

Liatna Rodríguez: Excuse me, Vice Minister, this is not the first time that we have crossed paths in a meeting. Two years ago you spoke to us about dialogue about [Decree] 349 and we are still waiting for an answer. The current situation does not give us time. Let’s not talk about procrastination; the decree was postponed and not repealed.

Gretel Medina Mendieta: The Ministry of Culture must pronounce on the existence of us as artists and what is happening in Cuba, and that is your responsibility. The recent statement from the AHS is false, it did not count on the artists for that.

If they were really mercenaries or criminals, they would have already planted a bomb in the Ministry of Culture, as did the July 26 Movement. If they were really mercenaries and criminals, they would not ask for dialogue with you

You have ignored the voices of the almost 300 artists gathered here today, and the thousands who have spoken in recent days in public statements, against the police repression, imprisonment and harassment of different artists, especially the strikers of San Isidro. As an institution to which we belong, which has the responsibility to represent us, we demand that you publicly acknowledge the existence of our voices and the positioning of these thousands of artists in relation to the state of affairs in recent days.

[Fernando Rojas tried to postpone everything: we are going to work on this, yes, we are going to analyze it… He insisted that he did not know anything about the events that were narrated to him, that he was not doubting the words of those present, but that he should investigate it. ]

Juliana Rabelo : Minister [the participants remind that it is the vice minister], well, vice minister, you speak of your opinion, I would like to know, who subscribes to the statements of the AHS and the Cuban Rap Agency? Here we come in the first person and with faces, I would like to know who signs these statements because I do not know who is responsible and I know that they are not everyone.

Fernando Rojas: I don’t know.

Juliana Rabelo: Well, isn’t knowing this one of your functions? If this is not one of them, what are they?

Fernando Rojas: I don’t have to give you an account of my work.

[How? Said many of those present.]

Juliana Rabelo: Your representative power as a public official obliges you to give an account of his functions, it is a matter, let’s say, public, political.

José Luis Aparicio: Who wrote the AHS statement? It’s offensive, it’s regrettable, and it has even grammatical and concordance problems from the first sentence.

Yasser Toledo: Let’s see, the Declaration was written, discussed and approved among the members of the National Council of the organization.

Camila Ramírez Lobón: That statement from the AHS is defamation, they have called the members of the San Isidro Movement mercenaries, some of whom are here at this meeting. Tell us now, do you consider us mercenaries?

[Yasser Toledo does not respond.]

Camila Ramírez Lobón: It is a yes or no question.

[Yasser Toledo does not respond.]

The artists spent more than 12 hours posted in the street in front of the Ministry of Culture. (14 and a half)
The artists spent more than 12 hours planted in the street in front of the Ministry of Culture. (14ymedio)

Reinier Leyva Novo: Tell us, it’s a yes or no question. You are the vice president of the AHS, if you are not qualified to answer that question with a yes or a no, then you are not even qualified to lead that organization.

Yasser Toledo: Let’s see, now that you tell me about them and there are some here present, and you show them to me as well as their friends, I might think they are not mercenaries. We are going to re-analyze the statement between the National Council of the organization.

[Some ask for a retraction.]

Yasser Toledo: If we decide to do so, then we will.

Jorge Alfonso: This meeting will be just the beginning. We must continue to debate these issues.

Tania Bruguera: We come here with an honest energy, and the only thing we are receiving is evasion, procrastination and ironies.

Marta Bones, vice president of UNEAC: It’s not you and us. Here we have put aside our creative work to work towards Cuban culture. I feel accused and it is not fair.

If I am fired from work tomorrow, I don’t care, I’ll start selling croquettes to support my son. We are willing to repeat every word spoken here to anyone, even to Raúl Castro

[As Bones spoke, the power went out; the first of at least two occasions. They were in total darkness, but the creators insisted on continuing despite this. Someone interrupted Bones to go out to see if those waiting outside were okay. They explained that they feared for their safety, and that the fact that the power went out could be, expressly, a maneuver by State Security.]

[Jorge Fernández, director of the National Museum of Fine Arts, went on to explain that they did not know anything about what those present told him about the repression:] We are going to work, to review the situation. We are going to talk with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

Fernando Rojas: There are issues here that I cannot answer you right now. We are going to create a discussion agenda.

[Also, at the proposal of those present, Fernando Rojas agrees to propose to the Ministry of the Interior to initiate a dialogue with the creators about the repression and violations of the laws by the State Security. Rojas once again attacks the independent press present, specifically Diario de Cuba.]

Fernando Rojas: I don’t believe in the press out there [independent and foreign press]. I don’t believe in social networks.

Fernando Rojas tried to postpone everything: we are going to work on this, yes, we are going to analyze it … He insisted that he did not know anything about the events that were narrated to him, that he was not doubting the words of those present, but that he should investigate it

After almost five hours of debate, the following agreements are made:

1. The vice minister would be interested in the cases of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Denis Solís.

2. The Ministry of Culture will organize agendas for debate, meetings with artists to negotiate their demands.

3. The Ministry of Culture would organize debate sessions on the application of the laws and the role of the Ministry of the Interior, in reference to the repression of artists by the Cuban State Security.

4. AHS would review your statement and, if it was accepted by the organization’s National Council, they would retract it.

5. Truce: The artists will be able to meet even in independent spaces without being harassed, to discuss issues related to their demands.

Fernando Rojas also transmitted a message from the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, who promised to meet with the artists the following week, after Wednesday, December 1. He also gave in to the demand of those present to guarantee that the hundreds of people gathered [in front of the ministry] could return to their homes safely and without police violence.

After the meeting, Yunior García, Kaherine Bisquet and Tania Bruguera, informed the more than five hundred people and independent and foreign press that they were waiting gathered outside the Ministry of Culture. They had achieved the main objective that had taken them there: to be heard and the commitment to obtain answers.

Now that you tell me about them and there are some here present, and show them to me as well as their friends, I might think that they are not mercenaries. We are going to re-analyze the statement between the National Council of the organization

List of people who debated with officials of the Ministry of Culture on November 27, 2020:

1. Michel Matos (MSI)

2. Amaury Pacheco (MSI)

3. Katherine Bisquet (MSI)

4. Claudia Genlui (MSI)

5. Aminta de Cárdenas (MSI)

6. Tania Bruguera (Instar)

7. Camila Ramírez Lobón (Instar)

8. Juliana Rabelo (Instar)

9. Gretell Kairúz (Instar)

10. Reinier Leyva Novo (plastic artist)

11. Julio Llopiz-Casal (plastic artist)

12. Solveig Font (curator)

13. Sandra Ceballos (plastic artist)

14. Miryorly García Prieto (Art historian)

15. Liatna Rodríguez Jiménez (Art historian)

16. José Luis Aparicio (filmmaker)

17. Mijaíl Rodríguez (filmmaker)

18. Alejandro Alonso (filmmaker)

19. Gretel Medina Mendieta (filmmaker)

20. Juan Pin Vilar (filmmaker)

21. Ulises Padrón (writer)

22. Alfredo Martínez (contributor of Tremenda Nota)

23. Daniel Díaz Mantilla (writer)

24. Henry Eric Hernández (plastic artist)

25. Yunior García (playwright)

26. Ian Benavides (musician)

27. Reynier Díaz (actor)

28. Mauricio Mendoza (contributor to Diario de Cuba)

29. Nelson Julio Álvarez Mairata (contributor to ADNCuba )

30. Camila Acosta (contributor to CubaNet)

Guests

Fernando Pérez (film director)

Jorge Perugorría (director and actor)

Officials of the Ministry of Culture

Fernando Rojas, Vice Minister of Culture

Marta Bones, vice president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC)

Yaser Toledo, vice president of the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS)

Jorge Alfonso, director of Génesis Galerías

Jorge Fernández, director of the National Museum of Fine Arts

Translated by Norma Whiting

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Human Rights Group Warns Cuban Government Is Setting the Stage for Civil War to Hold onto Power

A police operation on Thursday, November 26, to arrest members of the San Isidro Movement, who were protesting the imprisonment of dissident rapper Denis Solís.(14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 4, 2020 — The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) claims that Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel are “setting the stage for civil war in order to hold onto power at any cost instead of adopting the reforms that Cuba urgently needs.”

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Madrid-based organization condemned the “wave of repression” on the island, citing at least 212 arbitrary detentions and 566 other abuses “at the site of activists’ homes (393), threats, assaults, harassment, police citations, fines, beatings and harassment.”

Last month saw the second highest number of arbitrary arrests this year. “Actions by the Cuban regime are causing ever more social and political discontent,” claims the OCDH, “and this translates into more police brutality against human rights activists and citizens in general.” continue reading

The Observatory particularly condemns the repression of activists from the San Isidro Movement (MSI). It warns the international community of the deployment of anti-riot troops in the streets of Havana and threats against the population,” citing the newspaper Granma’s warning of “armed struggle” against those who protest or dissent.

“It is very serious when, in the midst of a wave of repression, the Cuban Communist Party [newspaper] references on its front page the dreadful article in the Constitution which authorizes the regime to use arms against the civilian population,” states the organization.

It goes on to request immediate international condemnation of the regime and urgent political intervention by the European Union and the governments of Spain and Latin America.

Similarly, the executive director of the OCDH, Alejandro González Raga, published a letter in which he expressed his concern over the harassment to which MSI activists have been subjected after some thirty artists met with the Vice-Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas. He also condemned the “intense smear campaign in official media outlets” and the “criminalization” of the group’s members.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The Line for Ground Catfish

The line outside a fish shop on 25th Street in Vedado to buy claria, a type of catfish.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 December 2020 – On Thursday the collection of shops on the ground floor of the Habana Libre hotel in Vedado woke up with line of people outside at the front doors waiting to buy food and other basic necessities. This routine has become more widespread since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

What are people waiting for this time? Is it the missing coffee? The scarce, low-quality bread. Some non-existent medication. A young man answers, “No one knows what they’re selling. I’m here just in case.”

Waiting in line once again sets the tone for the day. At the fish market on 25th Street, also in Vedado, there was another long line to buy ground claria, a type of catfish which some Cubans jokingly call “the national fish.” It was a product considered to be of little value until the growing food shortage began a few months. Now, in the absence of other food options, it is desperately sought after.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

And Them? Were They ‘Mercenaries’ Too?

In April 2003 – during the so-called ‘Black Spring’ — 75 opponents were arrested in Cuba, many of them journalists, for allegedly acting “in the interest of a foreign state.” (Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 6 December 2020 — I have several friends who have not slept for days, glued to the phone or having conversations in front of the mirror, with their pillow or in the shower. They are some of the artists who were in front of the Ministry of Culture on November 27 and who now are the target of a smear campaign. Several of their names have been singled out in the official media, and they have been accused of being “mercenaries,” “financed by the Empire,” and “terrorists.”

With the first insults, several of them told me in an incredulous tone “surely it is a mistake.” By the third day, they already knew that it was not confusion, because on television they continued to be associated with acts of vandalism. Then they called me to explain that as soon as the authorities reviewed their biographies more carefully, everything would be fine. After all, they are from the “left,” “from revolutionary parents,” they were “once members of the Union of Young Communists” and the only thing they have done is “love Cuba.”

There are few things as difficult as to snatch from a person who is the victim of the execution of their reputation the illusion that it is a mistake that will be corrected and they will be vindicated. Few listen when it is made clear to them that the system is designed to respond with that script to critics and that the current defamation bullets are calculatedly targeted and could soon become true fragmentation grenades against their prestige. continue reading

By the end of this week, on the other end of the phone the tone of the calls had changed and some voices were beginning to give way to anger and profanity.

“How are they going to say that about me if I have a drawer full of certificates for volunteer work?” an old acquaintance told me, someone who had been in front of the Ministry that night and  is now overwhelmed by the Manichean reports that seek to link the San Isidro Movement and the events of ’27N’ [27 November] with sabotage and violence. In about 40 minutes of conversation, he repeated his biography to me: schools in the countryside, exceeding targets, art works donated to hospitals…

As I spoke, I remembered the first time I was called “mercenary” and “enemy” of my country. I was so thin-skinned in the face of this slander that, like my friend, I tried to show that this had to be a colossal mistake. I also tried to show my selfless academic record, my good grace for dialogue, my inability to hurt an ant, my ignorance of any training in “cyberwar,” and that love for the Island that keeps beating between my chest and my back. It was useless, just as now it will not serve those most recently vilified now.

It is useless to defend oneself against such accusations or to think that they must be a mistake on the part of some official, because these insults do not seek to be believed but to be feared. They are not aimed at the victim of the smear campaign but at passive viewers of the tirade, so that they know what to expect if they dare to move from applause to questioning. In that case, it awaits you to see their faces on the primetime news surrounded by the worst adjectives, the threats to their families, the rewriting of their resumes to adapt them to the interests of the story that Power wants to tell, the insult of those who swallow such pseudo-informative mush. In addition to some act of repudiation and the inclusion of one’s name in articles, pseudo encyclopedias and morning assemblies at schools, wherever an enemy is required.

But, after crossing that desert, my friends will feel their souls lightened and their skins toughened against the injury, they will stop trying to explain who they are and they will care little about the thoughts of people who take it at face value, don’t look into it further, and accept a version without question. In addition, one question will forcefully come to mind for them. “If what they are saying about me is a lie and I know well it is, then when they said it about others previously, was it also false?”

It is at that point that the entire scaffolding of slander falters, the insults stop working and we come face to face, close and understanding each other, the accused of half a century ago, the harassed of three decades ago, the one tainted from the beginning of this millennium, the denigrated of the past five years and the ones blamed today. What system can crush the collective conscience of so many defamed?

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Soldiers Deployed to Guard Hard Currency Stores

Soldiers guard the entrance to the Plaza de Carlos III shopping mall in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 1, 2020 — The areas around several Havana stores have been under heavy guard by military and special forces troops since Monday when windows in one of the stores were smashed. Purchases at these stores, known locally as MLCs (the Spanish initials for “Freely Convertible Currency”), can only be made with foreign currency, through pre-loaded magnetic cards issued by Cuban banks. Those selling food and personal hygiene products are under the  the tightest security.

At the entrance to one of the city’s largest shopping malls, the centrally located Plaza de Carlos III, uniformed guards keep an eye on the entrance and on pedestrians passing by. The military presence has led to speculation by customers and area residents.

“We don’t know if it’s because the windows were broken at the hard currency store at Linea and 12th [streets] or because currency unification is about to happen and they’re preparing for public reaction,” says Liudmila Lopez, a resident of the nearby Los Sitios neighborhood. continue reading

The atmosphere in Havana has been growing more tense in recent days. Several activists from the San Isidro Movement have been on a hunger strike for more than a week, demanding the immediate closure of MLCs. They strongly distanced themselves on Monday, however, from the Panamericana store at Línea and 12th in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.

Public resentment has risen sharply against stores such as these since they began selling food and personal hygiene products last July. The advent of this form of retail, where items can only be purchased with foreign currency debit cards, has coincided with a dramatic decline in the availability of consumer goods in stores that accept Cuban pesos (CUP) and convertible pesos (CUC). Products such as evaporated milk, cheese, butter, tomato sauce, shampoo and coffee have disappeared from the shelves of so-called “shoppings” and can now only be found at foreign exchange stores.

Last Saturday, activists called for a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Internal Commerce in Old Havana. Among their demands were that MLC stores either be closed or forced to join the network of stores that accept payment in CUC and CUP.

14ymedio has received numerous reports of the presence of so-called Black Berets, an elite military unit that the government mobilizes under special circumstances. The troops, who are armed, dressed in bulletproof vests and travel in military vehicles, have been especially visible on the city’s main thoroughfares and in various parts of the Vedado neighborhood.

“They’ve taken over the whole street,” laments a resident on 26th street near the corner of 23rd. “There are several stores here — a pharmacy and other businesses — and since we woke up, the street corners and surroundings areas have been under heavy surveillance. It is very frightening because nobody has explained what’s going on.”

The atmosphere surrounding currency unification and the MLCs has added to the simmering tension caused by calls for solidarity with the San Isidro Movement.* The government responded with a “spontaneous” demonstration in Trillo Park, which was attended by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel dressed in the colors of the national flag.

“Yes or no, these are days to stay home,” says a retiree who lives near a hard currency store on Havana’s Boulevard.” I used to not go out because of the pandemic but now I don’t want to go out because there’s a lot of tension in the street and nobody knows how this is going to end.”

 *Translator’s note: A dissident movement founded in 2018, many of whose members are artists, musicians, journalists and academics who oppose what they call oppressive measures by Cuba’s communist government. (Source: BBC)

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A Young Man Protests Repression and Receives Popular Support on a Havana Boulevard

“Freedom. Down with repression. #Free-Denis,” reads a cardboard sign carried by the young man. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 4, 2020 — A young man who was peacefully protesting on San Rafael Street in central Havana on Friday afternoon garnered solidarity from numerous passers-by on the popular pedestrian thoroughfare. When the police arrested the protester, there were shouts of “leave him alone” and “thugs.”

He was carrying a handmade cardboard sign that read, “Freedom. Down with repression. #Free-Denis [Solis].” Several people took note, recorded the moment and posted a video on social media that went viral within minutes.

On the recording the protester can also be heard saying, “Freedom, down with the dictatorship.” Some of those present expressed support by repeating “Down!” As he walked back and forth in the street, holding the sign aloft so that it could be easily read by everyone, several bystanders said that the young man “is right.” continue reading

In less than a minute several uniformed police arrived and arrested the protester, who began shouting, “Freedom!” In the video a chorus of voices can be heard shouting the same word as well as, “Thugs. You’re all thugs,” “Let him go,” “Down with the dictatorship” and “Oppressors.”

Several women attacked the police officers while the young man was being arrested. In the video they can be seen hitting and struggling with the police for a few seconds.

People come out in defense of a young man who protested in Havana #Cuba#SanIsidro #MSI

Click here to see video -> https://t.co/17ivgS64iK

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) December 4, 2020

The protest occurred a few yards from La Arcada, one of the stores in the Cuban capital that sells groceries for hard currency. Stores where items such as food and personal hygiene products can only be purchased in “freely convertible currency” have been been subject to heavy criticism from Cubans.

Near the location where the young man was protesting is another business selling cleaning and personal hygiene products, many of which cannot be found on shelves of stores where customers can pay with Cuban pesos. This monetary apartheid, as many refer to it, has led to calls for street protests to demand that these stores be closed.

The street, a pedestrian boulevard that connects Central Havana with Old Havana, is lined with stores, businesses and restaurants. Because of its proximity to the part of the city most popular with tourists, there is often a heavy police presence, which has increased throughout the city in the last week.

One of the most popular wifi hotspots in the Cuban capital is located at the corner of San Rafael and Galiano streets, a factor that contributed to the widespread dissemination of videos of the incident that afternoon. Some images were also posted directly from witnesses’ mobile phones.

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Slogans Against Cuban ‘Dollar Stores’ Painted on Walls in Cienfuegos

“We want the dollar stores closed.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luis Daniel Fernández Monzón, Havana, 5 December 2020 — Several graffiti appearing on the walls in the small city of Cruces, in Cienfuegos province, surprised  the town’s inhabitants on Thursday. “Down with the dictatorship,” “We want the dollar stores closed,” and “Long Live Free Cuba, down with Dias [sic… it should be ‘Diaz’] Canel,” were the slogans featured.

The graffiti were painted during the night by unknown people on the facades of three houses on José Luis Robau street, at the corner with Paseo de Gómez (El Prado). The photos to illustrate this article were taken minutes before the authorities removed it.

As a consequence, there was a considerable deployment of police forces throughout the morning, a surveillance similar to the one that took place a few days ago in some commercial centers in Havana. With the difference that there are no dollar stores in Cruces at the moment, although it is said that one will open shortly.

The discontent of the population has increased since the Government determined last July to set up stores that sell food and cleaning products — that is basic necessities — but only take payment in freely convertible currency (MLC for its Spanish initials) — that is, foreign currency such as dollars and euros. In addition, shoppers must arrange through a bank to have a special magnetic card that carries the value of currency. (In this way, the State banks get the money before it is even spent.) continue reading

The closure of the dollar stores is precisely one of the requests of the San Isidro Movement, which considers that the measure divides society in two: those who have access to dollars and those who do not.

“Down with the dictatorship.” Following the appearance of the slogans there was a considerable deployment of police forces over the whole morning. (14ymedio)

In the afternoon of Thursday, the Cruces authorities organized an “act of redress” in Martí park, “in support of the Socialist Revolution and its leaders” and with songs by Silvio Rodríguez. At no time did the authorities make reference to the graffiti.

“They no longer know what to say, they no longer know what to do,” a resident told 14ymedio. “It is time to make the oppressors tremble. Now it is their turn to be afraid!”

The local media Radio Cruces reported a “revolutionary tángana” organized by the authorities in the municipality after the incidents. “Patriotic voices were raised in the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution number 7, in zone 21, located in the San José Popular Council of the municipality of Cruces,” the station explained.

“The counterrevolutionaries will not have any platform here, the counterrevolutionaries will not have the right to campaign against the Revolution here. It is over,” declared Elianis Sarduy, a student, at the official ceremony.

“Down with the dictatorship. We want the dollar stores closed. Long Live Free Cuba, down with Dias [sic] Canel.” (14ymedio)

This type of convocation has been taking place throughout the country after the hunger strike of several members of the San Isidro Movement and the protest of hundreds of artists in front of the Ministry of Culture in Havana, on November 27. The first of these “tánganas” took place in the Trillo Park of the Cuban capital and was attended by president Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The word “tángana” refers to student demonstrations against dictator Gerardo Machado in 1930, fueled by outrage at the death of 20-year-old leader Rafael Trejo. The pickets of young people gathered in the streets and squares to demand Machado’s resignation and their actions led to the end of his mandate.

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The Cuban Ministry of Culture Breaks the Dialogue By Rejecting the Artists’ Conditions

The moment when artists left the Ministry of Culture, after spending almost five hours meeting with Vice Minister Fernando Rojas. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 4 December 2020 – Cuba’s Ministry of Culture announced this Friday in an official note that it will not meet with the artists who, on 27 November, Vice Minister Fernando Rojas promised to open a dialogue with, arguing “that they have direct contact and receive financing, logistical support and propaganda backing from the United States Government and its officials.” Nor will the ministry, he says, speak “with the media financed by US federal agencies.”

Thus, the Government has unilaterally broken the agreements it had reached with the artists, who are now being called by the name “27N” (i.e., 27 November), after a peaceful demonstration in front of the Ministry of Culture demanded to meet with the minister and was finally able to meet with the vice minister.

In its statement, the ministry does not recognize the reasons that led the group to raise the conditions and point out that it lacks “legitimacy and ethics” to address the institutions of Cuban culture. continue reading

The conditions were drafted and agreed upon after several debates between some of the 30 artists and intellectuals who participated in the 27N meeting, as a result, they explained, of the “persecution, harassment and criminalization” directed from the Government towards the participants of that meeting.

Among the conditions, 27N asks for “guarantees of security and protection” for those who are going to attend the meeting and “for those who want to be outside.”

In their document, sent to the Ministry of Culture by email, according to the official statement, the artists emphasized that the list of representatives sent to the Ministry is made up of people who were democratically elected by the 27N protesters and that therefore their presence in the meeting “cannot be negotiable.”

Another of the requests they made was that the lawyer Julio A. Fernández Estrada accompany them as legal adviser at the meeting.

The group noted that, as the topics on the agenda “exceed the powers” of the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso Grau, they requested the presence of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, as well as authorized representatives from the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice.

However, they explained that since the “agreements were violated,” and that in many of the official media only Vice Minister Fernando Rojas’ version of the meeting appeared, “with no possibility of our replying in that media,” and so they insisted that the independent press be present at the meeting with the minister, to cover the meeting.

As a last condition, the group requested that at the end of the meeting a joint public statement be made outlining all the agreements that reached between both parties.

“We do not consider it pertinent to appear at the meeting until these guarantees have been publicly given,” the group concluded its conditions.

In its note this Friday, the Ministry of Culture argues that “those who implemented this maneuver” have broken the possibility of dialogue by “trying to include” in the group people “who have excluded themselves” by “their attacks on national symbols, common crimes and frontal attacks on the leadership of the Cuban Revolution, under the guise of art,” without specifying who they are referring to, but clearly alluding to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

In a text published by 27N this morning the group presented itself as a collection of “artists and intellectuals who are committed to demanding our rights through civic and peaceful means” with the aspiration of “an inclusive and democratic society.”

“We do not accept acts of violence or vandalism. We do not respond to the interests of foreign governments. We work solely to meet the demands of many Cuban intellectuals, artists and communicators to speak to the Ministry and the competent authorities,” they declare in response to the official media, which accused them of being in the service of the United States and of promoting violence with attacks on the newly constituted stores in Cuba that take payment only in foreign currencies through specially issued bank cards.

They also urge the national mass media “not to misrepresent the purpose of this negotiation, or hinder the necessary dialogue with half-truths and calls for discord.”

They ask the National Revolutionary Police and the Department of State Security of the Ministry of the Interior to “abide by the fulfillment of their function as guarantors of legality and to stop the persecution and harassment to which we are being subjected.”

Finally, they call on all Cubans, as well as the press and citizen voices, to stand with them at this time.

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Despite the Arrests and Pressures from Cuba’s Political Police, Independent Artists Gather

Artists gathered at the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism to work on the agenda agreed with Vice Minister Fernando Rojas on November 27. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 3 December 2020 — Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was not the only one to be arrested this Wednesday. The harassment has continued in the last 24 hours against members of the San Isidro Movement and other independent artists.

Tania Bruguera was also arrested on Wednesday afternoon when she was on her way to the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (Instar), which she directs, for a meeting with some of the 30 artists and intellectuals who participated in the meeting on November 27 at the Ministry of Culture, according to a source close to Bruguera.

“The group of 30 hasn’t rested, they’ve hardly slept, [meeting] in a democratic, respectful way, with open hearts,” said the artist in a direct transmission from Facebook, “so that progress can be made on the agenda items requested by the Ministry of Culture that we sent to him for the meeting that he asked us for this week.”

Bruguera claims that while they are meeting their side of the agreement, of the 30 artists who attended the meeting, there are six who have police surveillance at their homes and cannot attend the meetings and some members of the group were suffering harassment through pressure on their families. continue reading

She also said that they asked an “intermediary” to locate the Vice Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas, “to inform him of what is happening,” since one of the reasons for the meeting on November 27 was “to finish once and for all” with police the harassment.

In another video posted on her networks, Bruguera responded to State Security accusations that she is “working with the United States Department of State” and “following a manual” to provoke a popular revolt on the island: “Never in my life have I communicated with the United States Department of State, I do not need any government to tell me what I have to do for my country, I do not need to contact any country to order me to do anything. I am a Cuban who has a sufficient sense of decency and of her citizens’ rights to demand them from the entities that have to guarantee them.”

Speaking to 14ymedio, the artist explained that it was “Colonel Alberto and agent Mario, as they call themselves,” who went to see her Tuesday night at her home.

“The colonel was the one who spoke the whole time,” declared the artist, “to tell me that I was destabilizing the Government, that I was creating subversion, following someone’s orders, working with the people of the State Department of the United States Government and that I was doing all this because I had read a little book. I asked him the title but he didn’t tell me. ”

Among the threats the officers made against Bruguera was that “they would take the most severe measures” against her. “I replied that I was not going to accept the accusations he was making because not only were they a lie, but they also had legal implications related to Law 88, where the punishments are extremely severe. He insisted on telling me: ‘We are not going to allow you to destabilize the Government or create subversion.”

The officials reproached her that she was doing all this “to gain an endorsement,” “something I did not understand,” she declared. “I told him that he was completely wrong, that he did not understand what was happening and that we were where we were because the Ministry of Culture asked us for an agenda and that is what we were working on.”

In addition, the artist requested that they no longer visit her and that the next time they went, they would take her to jail: “They will not threaten me with these baseless accusations,” she declared.

For his part, the poet Amaury Pacheco also confirmed that he has surveillance on his home “from very early in the morning.” According to the complaint, other members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Michel Matos, Aminta de Cárdenas and Claudia Genlui, are in the same situation.

The music producer Michel Matos was also arrested this Tuesday afternoon, according to Iris Ruiz, a member of the MSI, on her Facebook profile. “Michel Matos has just been arrested at the corner of 27th and 8th in El Vedado. Patrol Car 436. Two policemen and a woman,” Ruiz posted.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Otero Alcantara Detained Again in Havana While Giving an Interview to ’14ymedio’

The State Security agent who intervened in the arrests of the independent artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara standing next to the curator Claudia Genlui Hidalgo. (Claudia Genlui)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 2 December 2020 —  The independent artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was detained this Wednesday when he left the house of the journalist Mónica Baró and while speaking by phone with 14ymedio. A police patrol took him to his mother’s house, where a State Security agent forbade him to go out and “told him to spend his birthday with his family,” said the spokesman for the San Isidro Movement, Michel Matos.

The activist and curator Claudia Genlui Hidalgo broadcast live on her social networks the moment when Otero Alcántara was detained: “The truce is once again broken,” she commented.

While filming, Genlui Hidalgo approached the entrance to Baró’s house, which since the night before had a patrol at the front and where a State Security agent in pink pants and two uniformed women from the Ministry of the Interior remained. The young woman asked if she could access the house and the moment when she was also detained was recorded. continue reading

Shortly after the fact, the journalist Carlos Manuel Álvarez, who was inside the house, denounced the arrests. “They have just taken Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Claudia Genlui Hidalgo, who was on her way to see him, from the ground floor of the house on 7th and 32nd,” he wrote on his Facebook profile.

“Luis Manuel slept here yesterday, since [the house at] Damas 955 was uninhabitable, and now he was going to meet his uncle. Just yesterday they had released him and the only thing he has done since then is sleep,” Álvarez said. “It seems that in his dreams he committed a new crime,” the journalist commented sarcastically, before adding: “Today is his birthday [33 years]. The unjustified harassment continues.”

Otero Alcantará was arrested while he was explaining to this newspaper his decision to end his hunger strike after ten days. “When I got to the hospital (Fajardo) I felt that they wanted to leave me there for a long time and I did not want to give them justifications for that; that was one of the reasons why I stopped the hunger strike. The other reason is because I felt that, yes, I was still going to die, and it didn’t make any sense, I had to be in the race, warming up and creating above all, generating those areas of disagreement that they have with me against the system.”

“In every step that the government took against us, I felt that we were winning,” he says. “I am tremendously enthusiastic, I am optimistic, I see the changes, it happened with Bienal 00, Decree 349. I think we are in a context where a civil society is developing that can generate important changes for Cubans.”

“When those people (State Security agents disguised as doctors) went into our house in San Isidro to get us out (which was one of the planned exits and I think it was indisputably the best for us and the most awkward for them) and they didn’t let me go back, I felt that they didn’t know what to do with me, they saw me as a stone that didn’t want to fit where they wanted it and that it was like a snowball that was growing.”

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Customers Protest the Seizure of Vendors’ Merchandise in Santiago de Cuba

Customers in Santiago de Cuba protest the seizure of products from private-sector vendors.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Francisco Herodes Díaz Echemendía, Santiago de Cuba, November 28, 2020 — Authorities were confronted with outrage, criticism and rage from residents of Santiago de Cuba’s Barrocones neighborhood on Friday after they confiscated a privately owned truck, alleging that vendors were using it to sell meats and vegetables for exorbitant prices.

“They were selling bananas for 20 pesos and avocado for 15. They also had lettuce and tomatoes, none of which are easy to come by these days,” said one outraged resident, who was no longer able to buy what he wanted on the corner of Carlos Dubois and Procesa streets, where the vehicle had been parked.

“The government only sells low-quality products, which are also expensive. And that’s when they have them, which nowadays is not very often,” claimed the customer after the vendors had been shut down. continue reading

Government inspectors and uniformed police officers had tried to convince the sellers to lower their prices. After failing to reach an agreement, however, authorities decided to seize the contents of the truck, which was being used to transport onions, garlic, lettuce, tomatoes, chiles and cabbage.

“Here in the city the only way you can buy food is through the merolicos [self-employed street vendors], so people became angry and surrounded the police who were preventing them from operating,” said the resident.

Food shortages as well as increased prices for the few items that are available have led to a growing sense of despair among local residents. The tension has been exacerbated by a new outbreak of Covid-19 in recent days that put the region one step away from new restrictions intended to control transmission of the virus.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuban Authorities Broke the Agreements with Artists, Denounces Tania Bruguera

Tania Bruguera, at the Instar headquarters, accompanied by other artists who were present at the meeting on November 27 with Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 30 November 2020 — Three of the five agreements reached on November 27 between independent artists and cultural authorities — beginning with the release of the young rapper Denis Solís, sentenced to eight months in jail for alleged contempt — did not last 24 hours, Tania Bruguera denounced in a press conference called this Sunday at the headquarters of the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (Instar), which she directs.

Bruguera, who accompanied some thirty artists in a meeting of more than four hours with the Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas, harshly criticized National Television for focusing on discrediting the San Isidro Movement and Denis Solís with alleged links to “terrorist” and “counterrevolutionaries.” In that “special program” they interviewed Vice Minister Rojas, who acknowledged that “it is not usual for us to have to react to a request formulated in this way.”

“There are police in the homes of artists, journalists and art critics,” Tania Bruguera told 14ymedio. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was in a hospital against his will, after he asked to go home. In addition, Fernando Rojas gave a distorted image of what happened at the meeting. Conclusion: in less than 24 hours they broke the agreements.” continue reading

Bruguera denounced that Rojas promised them that the government would not “defame and criminalize” the artists, and yet they were branded “mercenaries” in the media. Regarding the case of Denis Solís, the artist said that in the meeting with the vice minister “he was not asked to explain the legal processes of the country,” in reference to the long part of the official program dedicated to “due process,” “but to use his influence and power to intervene in [Solís’s] liberation.”

The artists present at the press conference called for an end to the repression and discrediting of the San Isidro Movement and demanded freedom of expression and association not only for themselves but for all citizens.

The filmmaker Gretel Medina told this newspaper that the demands they expressed “were not met” at the meeting but what happened “was unprecedented” and she considers that the first achievement of that day “was the union.”

“All of us who were before these officials agree, in one way or another, on the need to respect the right for every citizen, whether they belong to the creative community or not, to say what they think without fear of being repressed by State Security,” declared the visual artist Julio Llopiz-Casal.

Bruguera stressed that to decide the next steps, everyone’s opinions must be taken into account, because it is a heterogeneous group that is not only made up of the 30 participants in the meeting with the vice minister, but also others such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Anamely Ramos, who could not be there: Alcántara because he is hospitalized against his will and Ramos because of a police operation that prevents her from leaving her house.

Rapper Maykel Castillo ’Osorbo’, also under police surveillance, remains on a hunger strike and is in a “very delicate condition,” according to a statement from the San Isidro Movement on Sunday.

In the document, they note that on Saturday Iris Ruiz, Katherine Bisquet, Claudia Genlui, Michel Matos, Yasser Castellanos and Amaury Pacheco were detained for a few hours, when they left a visit to Maykel Castillo, and they ask that the “authoritarian opportunism be stopped in the context of the pandemic to avoid possible contagion as an excuse to isolate the members of this organization.”

In addition, they list other specific requests, among them, that “the Catholic Church” can visit Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara at the Fajardo hospital to “provide him with emotional support” and that “medical personnel proposed by the San Isidro Movement can verify the state of Maykel Castillo’s health.”

The group asserts that they distance themselves from “any violent act that is occurring or may be generated,” and urge the international community to continue “vigilant over the physical integrity of all members of this organization, other artists and activists determined to vindicate our rights to live in a country of freedoms.”

More than 70 students, graduates and former professors of the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) delivered a letter to the dean’s office on Saturday in support of Anamely Ramos, who expressed thanks on her social networks for the gesture. “The courage of my students in a moment as hard as this is something that I am still processing,” she expressed on her Facebook wall.

Meanwhile, the collective continues to receive more support from the art world. Figures such as Haydée Milanés, Carlos Varela, Leoni Torres, Yuliet Cruz, Fernando Pérez, Jorge Perugorría have been joined by the musician Cimafunk, who said, in a post on his Facebook wall, he was “proud” of his colleagues “because they are using their voices, their words and their peaceful behavior to share with us their realities and their vision of prosperity, well-being, freedom and peace.”

The recognized Afro-Cuban artist explains that he is not in Cuba at the moment “for family and professional reasons,” but he feels represented by the artists who demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Culture on Friday, “and those who were not there for various reasons, but who have shown us support from wherever they are.”

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