Madrid Spain.- Victims of the Cuban troubadour Fernando Bécquer delivered an open letter to the Cuban Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso Grau, demanding justice for all Cuban women and women from different Latin American countries who were sexually abused by the musician.
The letter was delivered by Colombian Paula Andrea Ramírez, who took advantage of Alpidio Alonso’s visit to Argentina, on the occasion of the 46th Buenos Aires International Book Fair.
Andrea Ramírez, one of Bécquer’s victims, explained through Facebook: “I looked the Cuban Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, in the eye. I smiled at her while my dear colleague María Santucho, coordinator of the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Center, told her: `She is Paula Ramírez and she wants to tell you something´”.
After telling the manager that she was one of the abused, the minister’s face shuddered, as did Abel Prieto’s, who was by his side, Ramírez says.
Both received a copy of the letter, which has more than 250 signatures. A copy was also delivered to the Cuban ambassador to Argentina, Pedro Pablo Prada.
“I told him that Fernando had abused me in 2006 in Colombia. That what he did to me is classified as a sexual crime in the Colombian criminal code, but that in order to judge him he had to be extradited. I told him that as in Cuba there are other women who have also denounced him criminally (…) Justice in Cuba has not given me the guarantees so that I can deliver my testimony and my evidence because there is only one email but they do not respond to the accusation of received,” he told the minister.
Alpidio Alonso replied that if the accusations against the troubadour are verified “the full weight of the law will fall on him and that his victims will be satisfied.”
According to the Minister of Culture, Fernando Bécquer has been banned from singing in public while he is under investigation.
“Shame and fear are two tools that abusers use so that their victims do not talk about what happened, so I draw strength, I swallow the shame and I don’t shut up and I scream and I speak. (…) We, the victims, denounce when we can or when the institutions let us,” said the Colombian.
He also assured that although he has not been able to access institutional justice, “he will continue betting that justice and social reparation arrive, so that no other woman is a victim of Fernando Bécquer.”
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