Tania Bruguera Denounces a Six-Hour Kidnapping by Cuban State Security

In a live broadcast on her social networks after her release, the activist said that “Cuba is not the same”, “things have changed” and asked the regime to also change its repressive methods. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 16 March 2021 — The artist Tania Bruguera denounced, this Tuesday, that she was kidnapped for almost six hours by State Security when she was walking with a friend near her home in Havana. In a live broadcast on Facebook after her release, the activist said that the purpose of her communication was to denounce what “many Cubans who lose their fear” are going through with the regime.

Bruguera insisted on pointing out that what she experienced is nothing more than a sample of how the Government, with all the strength and power it has, attacks a human being for thinking differently.

“I am quite careful when I use words, in this case I will consciously say that what happened to me today was a kidnapping,” she said when she began the story of how she was approached by four plainclothes officers and taken to the Infanta police station in a private car that “did not have any sign of belonging to any organization.”

“I am quite careful when I use words, in this case I will consciously say that what happened to me today was a kidnapping”

At the police station, according to her account, State Security “spoke to themselves”, she preferred to spend those hours in silence, while the agents wanted to “create division, fear and mistrust among the different people who, today, are working so that things change.”

She stressed that the important thing is to understand “what is the system that the Government is using” to scare people who “are doing what they think should be done” and are not afraid to make their positions known. In this regard, Bruguera told 14ymedio that the methods the regime uses to coerce and “scare people are no longer working.”

“Today we have people who are being threatened that they wull lose their jobs, friends whose children are harassed at school because their parents think differently, people who have been mistreated and defamed on Cuban television. What happened today is not an isolated case, it is a mediocre, absurd exercise of power and belongs to the 20th century and not the 21st,” she said at another point in the video posted on Facebook.

The artist made it clear that “Cuba is not the same,” “things have changed” and asked the regime to also change its repressive methods. “We must stop, once and for all, the political violence that exists.” She also advocated starting work “on a law against political violence against citizens. Here everyone has the right to think as they want and to be respected as such.”

Bruguera took the moment to call for the union of civil society: “Today’s Cuba depends on us, that we are above this silly disunity and those little egos and that we are all together to build that Cuba that we are beginning to experience, a Cuba with democracy where everyone has the right to exist. ”

The artist told this newspaper that what the Government fears the most is “the union between different groups, between people who think differently and the possibility that very diverse people can reach common points of agreements to work together. There is a history of more than 60 years where, each time this has happened, they have attacked to create discord and division between the groups, because it is what they fear the most.”

“I will continue working for that Cuba, I will continue to do what I believe is necessary so that the abuse and political violence in Cuba cease and so that the right to have rights is respected.”

“I am going to continue working for that Cuba, I am going to continue doing what I think is necessary for the abuse and political violence in Cuba to stop and for the right to have rights to be respected,” the artist said at the end of the broadcast on her social networks.

When Bruguera was kidnapped by State Security she was with the artist Juliana Rabelo to show her a delicatessen on the corner by her house. Rabelo asked the agents who they were and where they were taking Bruguera and only received the answer: “Keep your distance, Yulaisy.”

After learning that the activist was missing, Carolina Barrero, Camila Lobón and Rabelo filed a writ of habeas corpus in favor of Tania Bruguera before the Provincial Court of the capital.

Bruguera was one of the artists who stood on November 27 in front of the Ministry of Culture to demand dialogue after the arrests of Denis Solis and the strike by the San Isidro Movement. Since then she has been arrested and interrogated several times for hours. In addition, she has been prevented from leaving her home, which is why the artist has considered herself to be on “house arrest without any explanation” during those days.

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