MADRID, Spain.- Two years ago this November 27, a group of artists, journalists, activists and others met in front of the Cuban Ministry of Culture (MINCULT) to demand dialogue with the officials of that institution.
The Cubans gathered there sought to express their rejection of Decree Law 349 that limits freedom of expression and punishes those who violate it; as well as repudiate the violent eviction of several protesters from the San Isidro Movement (MSI), which occurred the day before.
Hundreds of Cubans were added to the initial group, made up of about 15 people, until they exceeded the number of 300 people, which led to 30 of them being allowed to meet with MINCULT officials, including the vice minister, Fernando Rojas.
Among the plaintiffs were the playwright Yunior García, the plastic artists Julio Llópiz-Casal, Reynier Leyva Novo, Camila Lobón and Tania Bruguera, and the filmmakers José Luis Aparicio, Miryorly García and Mijail Rodríguez.
During the meeting, the demands were read by the writer Katherine Bisquet: Review and transparency of the judicial process against Denis Solís; Freedom of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (LMOA); Right to have rights, freedom of expression, free creation and dissent; Cessation of defamation and discredit by the official media; Recognition and respect for independent positioning; and No more police violence, no more political hate.
After that day, from which the 27N Movement emerged, the repression against activists and artists on the Island continued, with which the regime violated the agreements made on November 27, 2020.
On January 27, 2021, around twenty artists went to the outskirts of MINCULT again to denounce this repression. Several MINCULT officials, led by Minister Alpidio Alonso Grau, attacked these artists. Alonso Grau he took the phone from the independent journalist Mauricio Mendoza; and the group was forced onto a bus and taken to the Infanta y Manglar police station. There they were interrogated and threatened for their activism.
With this, the possible dialogue with the Government ended and, two years after November 27, the demands of the Cubans have not only not been fulfilled, but the repression has been increasing and many of the members of the 27N have been forced to To exile.
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