More than one hundred Cuban artists and other nationalities signed a letter of support for comedian Jorge Fernández Era, who has been intimidated and imprisoned on several occasions by the regime in Havana. The petitionan initiative of the exiled writer Enrique Del Risco, denounces an unjust persecution on the Island for people of the “art of making people laugh.”
“We denounce the campaign of harassment and discredit that has been launched against our colleague Jorge Fernández Era,” he says in the petition, which also recalls that the journalist has been a reference for “Cuban humor” for four decades.
The petition alludes to the exclusion of Fernando Era from the media in which he collaborates, his prohibition to travel outside of Cuba and his house arrest for one year, for “the simple crime of satirizing Cuban reality.” “We believe that, like any comedian, Fernández Era is fulfilling his duty: to satirize the deficiencies of his society. The Cuban authorities are not fulfilling theirs, persecuting him,” he points out.
The letter, open for more artists to join, already has the signature of 106 Cuban humorists, cartoonists and writers abroad, as well as intellectuals from Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Spain.
Among the signatories are the comedians Ulises Toirac and Rigoberto Ferrera, residents of the Island; actor and writer Alexis Valdés, based in Miami; the actress Aleanys de la Cotera, known as Cuqui la Mora; graphic artists Omar Santana and Alen Lauzán, along with producer Alexis Nuñez Oliva, among many others.
The letter already has the signature of 106 Cuban humorists, cartoonists and writers abroad, as well as intellectuals from Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Spain.
On several occasions, Fernández Era has had problems with State Security, including arrests, interrogations and harassment. Last April, he broke his relationship with the digital magazine The Young Cuba, after its director, Harold Cárdenas Lema, rejected his Sunday column in which he ironized the US pro-Castro organization Bridges of Love and State Security. The management’s argument was that the text was a “disqualification of the projects and institutions on which we prefer to make political analyzes and not approach them as satire.”
In April, the comedian was also detained for three hours at the Aguilera police station, in Havana, where they finally let him go under house confinement for 36 days (until June 6) for him and his wife, Laideliz Herrera Laza. On social networks, the writer explained that the officers charged him with the alleged crime of disobedience.
Again, on Sunday June 18, his wife denounced that he was arrested in the Central Park of the capital, when he only carried “a blank sheet” as a peaceful protest. Fernandez was also has denounced reprisals by the Cuban regime against his son Eduardo Luis Fernández, 22, who is serving a sentence for robbery with violence.
The declaration adds that the comedian has the right to leave his home, especially because “we understand that the writer is of legal age” and it does not prevent the Cuban from having access to the reality of his country. The signatories of the text demand an immediate end to the persecution against Fernández Era.
“If you do not know what the duties of a humorist and the rights of a citizen consist of, we promise to explain it to you in a new letter, with many more signatures,” he concludes.
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