This video shows the faces of the State Security Agents who blocked the door to the event.
Dissidents Expelled from the Presentation of Criterios Magazine
From Diario de Cuba
Cuban State Security told Orlando Luis Pardo, Leonardo Calvo and Juan Antonio Madrazo that the activity was ’cultural’ and they did not belong ’to the world of culture’.
The dissidents Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Leonardo Calvo Cárdenas and Juan Antonio Madrazo were expelled from the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Industry (ICAIC) when they tried to attend the presentation of the magazine Criterios.
“State Security would not let us through,” reported the journalist and activist Calvo Cardenas.
The plainclothes officers said that “the institution has reserved the right of admission.” They further argued that “the activity was cultural and we do not belong to the world of culture,” Calvo said.
Omar Gonzalez, president of the ICAIC, witnessed the incident.
Number 37 of the journal Criterios, a publication that celebrates 40 years, was presented on this day.
The writer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo wrote on Twitter that Desiderio Navarro, director of the magazine, “hung up the phone” when he called to denounce the “atrocity of the State Security agents in the lobby.”
He said none of the attendees protested the exclusion of activists.
DIARIO DE CUBA tried to locate Desiderio Navarro for comment, but he was not answering his phone.
The meeting was also scheduled to debate “The sense of the public sphere in Cuba,” with the participation of Jorge Luis Acanda, Arturo Arango, Mario Castillo, Rafael Hernández, Leonardo Padura, Yasmín Portales and Roberto Veiga.
OTHER LINKS
www.penultimosdias.com/2012/02/28/62009
www.hablalosinmiedo.com/2012/02/expulsan-olpl-de-un-debat…
zoevaldes.net/2012/02/28/expulsan-a-olpl-de-un-debate-en-…
*Translator’s note: The word OLPL uses for “employees” is “Asalariados” — salaried — which is the word the Castro regime uses to refer to dissidents when they call them “employees of the empire,” that is the United States.
February 29 2012
