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The artist Tania Bruguera will be able to get out of Cuba after recovering his passport, The artist who was silenced by an open microphone An arrest in three acts
A group of cuban artists, including Tania Bruguera, was arrested on Monday by security forces in Havana after attempting to make a protest against the decree 349, that regulates the sector of art and that the creators see as a possible tool for the increase of censorship in the island. After being released, the artist and activist was arrested for the second time in two days. The first, on Monday morning, when on his way to a peaceful sit-in at the gates of the Ministry of Culture, where they were imprisoned, the actor Michel Matos and poet Amaury Pacheco. “Tania was free only a few hours. Has been arrested again and we don’t know where you are”, has declared to Efe her sister, Deborah Bruguera. This fact was corroborated by the actress the actress Iris Ruiz, who has pointed out that his mobile is not working.
three Other artists who also participated in the protest, including the leader of the campaign against the decree 349, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, are also arrested.
Bruguera, performance artist, had already been arrested on another occasion for protesting publicly against the communist Government, was released by the afternoon, said his mother, Argelia Fernandez, but went immediately to protest against the arrest of other comrades. “I feel that I cannot do anything else that solidarizarme”, wrote Bruguera in his page of Facebook, where he has also posted a photo of her with a t-shirt with the words “No decree 349”. “If I stop I will be as agreed and as I was already, in strike of hunger and thirst”, he added.
The decree 349 was one of the first laws signed Miguel Diaz-Canel since that happened to Raúl Castro as president of Cuba last April. The version of the authorities of the regime is that this text seeks to prevent the extension of “seudocultura”, of poor quality, and “stop the wave of globalising and their imitations nationals”. However, the organization Amnesty International has denounced that the new ordinance would contravene “not only the right to freedom of expression of those who develop artistic activities in Cuba, but also the right of every person to seek and receive information and ideas of all kinds”.
The most controversial of the act is that it requires that the artists are attached to a cultural institution of the State, must request express permission to act, expose and market their work. Violations of this new law, which will enter into force on the 7th of December, fines of varying amounts, forfeiture of instruments, cancellation of performances and/or suspension of licenses.
Bruguera —known for its performances of dye political and for having participated in events at the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York— had agreed with other members of the collective to start a hunger and thirst strike if they were apprehended.
