MIAMI, United States. – In the midst of protests and the arrest of an activist, the Buena Fe group concluded its controversial tour of Spain with a concert in Madrid that the state agency Prensa Latina called it “memorable”.
The closing concert of the tour was held at the Marcelino Camacho Auditorium in Madrid, where the crowd, made up of around 500 sympathizers of the Cuban regime, waved flags of the July 26 Movement and displayed signs that read “They will not pass, Madrid is not Miami”.
Among those attending the concert were Enrique Santiago, former Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda and leader of the Communist Party of Spain, and Marcelino Medina, Cuban ambassador to Spain.
For his part, Lázaro Mireles, coordinator of the Actions for Democracy Movement, was detained by the Spanish National Police outside the theater, prior to the start of the concert. “This is a clear example of how we are persecuted, harassed and censored by all the accomplices of the dictatorial regime,” declared.
Mireles maintained that his arrest was an attempt to avoid any mishap during Buena Fe’s entrance to the concert, and attributed it to “censorship and abuse of power” ordered by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spain’s Minister of the Interior.
A video released by Mireles himself shows the activist being escorted to a police car as shouts of “Freedom!” and “Down with censorship!”.
Yoan Carlos Fariñas Ogando, another activist present at the protest, expressed on his Facebook profile: “Today we show the spokesperson duo of the Castro Buena Fe dictatorship that they are despised by free Cubans that we defend freedoms, since in Cuba they are denied to every Cuban. Down with Communism! Long live free Cuba without communism!
The band, known for its support of the island’s regime, had to face the cancellation of four of its concerts in Spain. According to Israel Rojasleader of Buena Fe, the Cuban exiles who protested and boycotted their concerts in Spain had the objective of “miamilizar any place where Cuban culture wants to flourish, and that must be avoided at all costs.”
Last week, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) issued an official statement describing the protests against Buena Fe and the cancellations of its concerts as “acts of a fascist nature.”
Rojas, for his part, added more repudiation to his group when said not to know that the regime kept hundreds of political prisoners, in an interview with the official media OnCuba.
