(EFE) .- The United States Government regretted this Saturday that the Cuban regime “has reaffirmed its determination to silence independent artists, activists and journalists” on the first anniversary of the historic peaceful concentration of more than 300 artists last year.
“After the historic rally in front of the Ministry of Culture last year, Cubans have repeatedly asked their government for fundamental freedoms, democracy and respect for human rights,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“On each occasion, the regime has squandered the opportunity for dialogue, redoubling its commitment to a failed economic system and a bankrupt ideology that cannot respond to the basic needs of Cubans,” he added.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez criticized Blinken on Saturday in response to that statement.
“After the historic rally in front of the Ministry of Culture last year, Cubans have repeatedly asked their government for fundamental freedoms, democracy and respect for human rights,” Blinken said.
“The US State Department would do well to observe the strong youth demonstration in support of the Revolution today, November 27,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the thousands of young people who marched today to commemorate the shooting of eight medical students that day 1871.
The island’s foreign minister added that the US’s “destabilizing, illegitimate and illegal” plan “has failed once again.”
On November 27, 2020, more than 300 Cuban artists and intellectuals in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba in Havana, which culminated in a preliminary dialogue between the creators, which demanded the end of censorship and repression, and Government representatives.
Thirty of those gathered, including the actor Jorge Perugorría, the film director Fernando Pérez, the artist Tania Bruguera and the playwright Yunior García, accessed the Ministry’s offices for a meeting with the vice minister, Fernando Rojas, and other authorities in the field culture that lasted for more than four hours until both parties agreed to hold periodic meetings to resolve their differences.
Both the peaceful rally – in which those present applauded and chanted songs – as well as the meeting between artists and the government set a historical precedent in Cuba, where the de facto right to demonstrate does not exist and the institutions rarely agree to dialogue with independent groups of the civil society.
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