More than 300 cultural figures, some internationally renowned such as Meryl Streep, Orhan Pamuk and Paul Oster, today called on the Cuban authorities to release “all artists arbitrarily detained” on the island, where creators and intellectuals are at the forefront of the challenge movement.
“The Cuban government must immediately put an end to the abuses against Cuban artists,” wrote authors Isabel Allende, John Maxwell Kuci, Called Hosseini and Mario Vargas Liosa in an open letter released by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). HRW) and Pen America.
The signatories, including Elena Poniatowska, Zady Smith and Tsimamanda Ngozi Adici, are also urging Cuban authorities to drop the charges against the artists.
On November 27, 2020, nearly 300 artists demonstrated in Havana demanding greater freedom of expression, a movement that was the beginning of a series of social demonstrations in Cuba until the July 11 demonstrations, the largest since the 1959 revolution.
“In response, the Cuban government has systematically targeted Cuban artists, including those recently and those who took part in the July 11 protests,” they said.
“It has even been reported that several dozen artists have been arrested and detained or placed under house arrest,” while others are “under constant surveillance” and others have left the country, the signatories estimate.
On November 16, the opposition platform Cuba Decide denounced the arrest of more than 100 people and the house arrest of nearly a hundred activists, according to them, to prevent them from participating in demonstrations.
“Nothing can justify the persecution of artists who peacefully express their views,” the letter said.
Most of the 300 artists appealing call on the communist government to “immediately stop harassing artists whose political and social criticism does not fit the regime’s rigid ideology.”
The letter is also signed by Cuban artists such as Hamlet Lavastida, who was forced into exile in Europe in September after being arrested in Cuba in June on charges of “inciting delinquency” on social media.
SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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Source From: Capital
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