Roberto Carcasses Responds to Banning from Cuban Stages

Roberto Carcasses Responds to Banning from Cuban Stages
September 16, 2013

HAVANA TIMES — Cuban authorities came down hard on a well-known
jazz-fusion musician Roberto Carcasses for the unspecified crime of
criticizing the government and asking for free access to information
during an official event.

Carcasses published his response today on the Interactivo band's
facebook site. He said a government official told him that it would
impose an "indefinite sanction" that bans his presence from all Cuban
cultural institutions.

The 41-year-old musician surprised the public a few days ago when he
asked for "free access to information" and the right to "elect the
president by direct vote" at a pro-government mass rally in front of the
US Interests Section in Havana.

At the nationally televised concert held Thursday night as part of a
campaign demanding the release of four Cuban intelligence agents
imprisoned in the US since 1998, Carcasses also mentioned Cuba's
political dissidents, asking that all Cubans enjoy the same rights.

"I want them to release the 'five heroes', and to release Maria. Free
access to information so I can have my own opinion. Elect the president
by direct vote and not by any other means" were some of the improved
lines sung by the musician.

"The blockade must end and the self-blockade too, please. Neither
militants nor dissidents, all Cubans with the same rights," added the
pianist and composer.

Interactive performed at the end of the multi-band concert for the Cuban
Five at the "Antiimperalist Plaza". The five intelligence agents were
arrested in 1998 in the United States. Four of them are still in jail,
convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and other charges.

According Carcassés, a Culture official called him to a meeting the
following day to hear his explanation and accused him of being
"opportunistic."

"He told me ( … ) that my statements were not in line with the Cuban
Revolution, that it was not the place for that, that it was
opportunistic and therefore I was banned indefinitely from all cultural
institutions," the jazz musician said in his statement.

The pianist, however, stuck to his criticism.

"As much as I see the video and reread what I said, I do not see why my
ideas do not conform to the line of the Cuban Revolution , if we are
trying to improve our system and if it takes courage to harm yourself
saying what you think," he said.

"Perhaps I was wrong to expect that my words would provide an image of
tolerance and evolution of the current Cuban government," he added.

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