EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 13 October 2020 — The artist and activist Tania Bruguera was the object of an “act of repudiation” this Monday in Havana, when several people surrounded, insulted and harassed her until she left the Old Havana neighborhood she was trying to access.
“Bitch,” “mercenary,” “filthy” and “get out of here” were some of the expletives launched against Bruguera by a group of about twenty people who later shouted “Fidel, Fidel,” according to a video released shortly afterwards on social media.
Bruguera — known for her political performances and for having participated in events at the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, among others — was trying to access the street where the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement is located.
The act of repudiation against Tania Bruguera in the San Isidro neighborhood. This was published on the official Prensa Latina site under a profile with the face of Karl Marx and under the name of Mario Valdés. Listen to the civility of what the crowd is shouting at Tania. — Rolando Nápoles (@RNapoles) October 12, 2020
The members of the San Isidro group, which advocates freedom of expression in the country, have denounced having been the subject of continuous arbitrary detentions and harassment by State Security in the last year and a half.
Last Saturday, commemorating the start of the independence wars in Cuba, almost a score of independent activists, artists and journalists, including Bruguera and members of the San Isidro Movement, were detained for several hours.
The group had planned a Concert for Freedom at its headquarters, and on the occasion of the anniversary released a “statement against police violence in Cuba” in which it denounced that its headquarters had been subjected to “a strong siege” for days. None of the planned events came to fruition.
On that same day, the art curator Anamely Ramos and the writer Katherine Bisquet also suffered an act of repudiation at the doors of the former’s house, where several women intimidated them with shouts and prevented Ramos from leaving and Bisquet, who was going to visit her, from entering. Both were detained for a few hours.
The incidents, widely reported on social networks with videos of the most tense moments, provoked criticism from many Internet users on the Island.
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