MIAMI, United States. – In the panel “Metamorphosis of a right. Freedom of expression in Cuba”, held within the framework of the IX Summit of the Americas, several activists and journalists raised the need to increase support for Cubans who are struggling to create democratic conditions in their country.
The panel, which was organized by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Victims of Communism organization and the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), included the participation of Maylin Fernández (Cuban Lawyers Collective). , Michel Matos (San Isidro Movement), Pablo Díaz (Cuban Journal), Derek Mitchell (NDI President), Carlos Ponce (Victims of Communism), and Jacquie Marte (NDI).
Also present at the event were Aimara Peña, from Somos Nueva Cuba; the journalist from CubaNet María Matienzo and rapper Osvaldo Navarro Veloz, from Di.Verso and the Committee for Racial Integration (CIR), but the Cuban regime prevented them from leaving the country to avoid their participation in the IX Summit of the Americas.
During the event, Derek Mitchel said that every time they say that “democracy is under attack” he remembers the example of Cuba, “where on 11J thousands of journalists, activists and citizens took to the streets to fight for freedom of expression” .
For her part, Maylin Fernández recalled that in the new Constitution “freedom of expression has an insurmountable limit in article 4” and stressed that “it is a scandal that in the 21st century a Penal Code like the one recently approved in Cuba is maintained.” .
On this point, Pablo Díaz, the director of Cuban newspaper, considered that the new Penal Code demonstrated “the weakness of the regime” and that it was “a reaction to the end of the information monopoly” of the Cuban Government.
“Thinking that a series of regulations is going to contain freedom of expression is a fantasy that can only occur to a totalitarian regime like the Cuban one,” he said.
Speaking of the role of independent journalism in Cuba, Díaz also stressed that “working in independent media is working in the Cuba of the future.” And he added: “Being an independent journalist is a great privilege and a great responsibility. Privilege because we can say what we want in an environment like the Cuban one and responsibility because we are the voice of a great silenced majority”.
For his part, producer Michel Matos, referring to freedom of expression and art, recalled the efforts of Cuban artists to win spaces for expression and the “No to 349” campaign promoted by the MSI in 2017 and 2018.
The panel was held at the Gloria Delson Contemporary Arts Gallery where it is presented the exhibition “Fear is of no use to us”, an exhibition that discusses the budgets of artivism, denunciation, documentation and memory and that includes the participation of Venezuelan artists Muu Blanco, Andrés Michelena and Víctor Alfonzo Navarro Lopez; and the Cubans Aryam Rodríguez, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Nelson Jalil, Sandra Ramos, Sandra Ceballos, Ángel Delgado, Yulier P., Alejandro Ulloa, David D’Omni, Ana Olema and the poet Katherine Bisquet.
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