Hundreds of artists call for release of Cuban colleague Bruguera

Hundreds of artists call for release of Cuban colleague Bruguera
2/01/2015 - 16:41
By Daniel Wallis

HAVANA (Reuters) - More than 500 artists wrote to Cuban President Raul
Castro on Friday calling for the release of a colleague who was detained
for a third time in three days in a crackdown that has tested a new
detente with the United States.

Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera was detained again on Thursday
after going to a Havana prison to demand that fellow opponents of the
government be released, dissidents said. She had planned an open
microphone event earlier this week that the communist government called
a "political provocation."

The dissidents, who have limited public support on the Caribbean island,
are denounced by the Cuban authorities as in the pay of the United States.

In their open letter to Castro, artists from around the world said they
were "profoundly troubled" by Cuba's reaction to Bruguera's event, which
never took place.

Bruguera, who divides her time between the island and art projects
mostly in Europe and the United States, told Reuters after her first
arrest that her passport had been confiscated by Cuban officials.

"We firmly believe her detention, and the withdrawal of her Cuban
passport, are inappropriate responses to a work of art that simply
sought to open space for public discussion," the artists' letter said.

Cuban officials do not typically comment on police activity such as the
detention of dissidents.

Brief detentions are Cuba's standard response to opposition street
protests, but they have taken on greater significance just two weeks
after Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Dec. 17 that
they would restore diplomatic ties, potentially bringing an end to more
than five decades of hostility.

Obama's policy shift has drawn some opposition inside the United States
from critics who argue the Cuban government now has less incentive to
improve its human rights record. A high- level U.S. State Department
official is expected to lead a visit to Havana later this month for
detailed talks on how to restore diplomatic ties.

Castro has applauded Obama for Washington's stance, but has said that
Cuba will not change its one-party political system.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by David Adams and Dan Grebler)

Source: Hundreds of artists call for release of Cuban colleague Bruguera
- elEconomista.es -
http://www.eleconomista.es/cultura/noticias/6365458/01/15/Hundreds-of-artists-call-for-release-of-Cuban-colleague-Bruguera.html#.Kku8KtdjEH4hhnx