MADRID, Spain.- “Censorship exists everywhere. I know very developed countries where actors and singers have been prosecuted and imprisoned for saying ‘inconveniences’. There are also countries where the opinion of others is silenced with bullets. Nothing like that has happened in Cuba,” said Cuban troubadour Silvio Rodríguez, who once again regime side.
In a recent interview with the newspaper The Spanish, the musician minimized the prevailing repression on the island and preferred to refer to the situation in other countries.
“In Cuba, ten people surround the house of a dissident for a while, put on some music, put up a hand-painted poster and it appears in all the world’s newspapers like the horrendous rallies repudiating Castro’s communism,” he said.
Asked about the Cuban people’s discontent with the government, which the journalist from The Spanishl he has been able to perceive during his visit to the Island, Rodríguez expressed: “Discontent is a universal right. Fortunately, also an incensurable practice. However, being dissatisfied with a government is not the same as not believing in the principles it upholds. There are economic situations, sometimes imposed, that can provoke punctual reactions”.
The flight of young people is our bitterest drama
Regarding the current migratory crisis, he considered: “The flight of young people is our most bitter drama.”
Although “it is hard”, “it is a choice that does not only happen in revolutions. It happens everywhere, especially in countries in conflict or with economic problems”, said the singer-songwriter.
“Spain has not been a town of migrants? Don’t they have migratory problems in the south, with Africa, and with countries in the Middle East? Sometimes it amazes me that, in countries with resources, where there are problems and disagreements with their governments, they speak so badly about ours, ”she added.
Regarding the departure from the country of the also renowned musicians Celia Cruz and Pablo Milanés, Rodríguez responded vaguely. “I have experienced some of our dissidences with the same regret that you or your ancestors may have experienced that of extraordinary intellectuals and artists such as Antonio Machado, León Felipe, Rafael Alberti or Antonio Gades. I had the pleasure of meeting the last two. I was a very close friend of Gades; His remains, by his will, lie in our Sierra Maestra”.
The troubadour did not forget to repeat the regime’s speech and blame, before the foreign press, the economic embargo for the crisis in Cuba.
According to Rodríguez, “part of the poverty that can be felt in the streets of Cuba has a surname: Made in the USA. According to his statements, “the blockade is to create poverty and for the people to turn against the government.”
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