MADRID, 8 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cuban artist Marco Castillo, the critic Gerardo Mosquera and the Mexican curator Cuauhtémoc Medina have called for the freedom of the Cuban artist Hamlet Lavastida, who was arrested on June 21 when he returned to Cuba from Berlin (Germany).
“Hamlet’s situation is very dangerous. It can be a warning to Cubans living outside of Cuba not to return. It is a threat,” Mosquera warned this Thursday, July 8, during a moderate meeting held at ARCO in Ifema Madrid. by TBA21 curator Sofía Lemos.
On the 21st, Hamlet Lavastida returned to Cuba after a residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. At the end of the mandatory preventive quarantine by Covid-19, on June 26 he was arrested and transferred to Villa Marista, headquarters of the State Security investigation body, in Havana, accused of the crime of incitement to crime.
In addition to covering the artist’s exhibition as a result of the aforementioned residence in Berlin, the German media “have denounced the violation of his civil rights by the Cuban authorities.” Institutions, artists, journalists and members of civil society have joined this complaint.
Hamlet Lavastida is one of the most active artists outside of Cuba when it comes to denouncing the repression in his country and is part of the 27N community, promoted by intellectuals who demand peaceful democratic changes and respect for human rights in Cuba.
“It is an absolutely unfair punishment,” said Gerardo Mosquera, who has indicated that Hamlet Lavastido had the right to a hearing where he could present his defense arguments, but that “this hearing was not granted.”
The Cuban critic explained that in the car “he was accused of a crime of instigation to commit a crime”, for which Hamlet “has been indicted”: “There are a number of irregularities in current Cuban law.”
“He remains in prison, when for the crime he is accused of, it is not appropriate for him to remain in prison awaiting trial and given the impossibility that he can leave the country,” he said.
In his opinion, Hamlet Lavastida has been “falsely accused and the alleged evidence against him was illegally obtained”. “It is clearly seen that it is something done for repressive purposes and not for legal purposes. The case of Hamlet is no exception,” he warned.
“There is a surge in these moments of repression as an awakening in Cuban civil society increases, in which artists and intellectuals are at the forefront, demanding basic freedoms of expression, the right to freedom of speech,” he added.
For his part, the Cuban artist Marco Castillo has made reference to the “fear” that the Cuban government has of the union of artists and intellectuals, “a phenomenon that has been occurring especially since 2018.”
In this sense, Castillo explained that since that year “there has been something very special, the entire art system has decided to leave the differences behind and connect under the same voice, the defense of rights and freedoms of expression.”
“Since this union has happened, it has not stopped the harassment, repression, imprisonment, which the State uses to intimidate and calm people. Some people have been locked in police cars for hours or days, something that creates a climate of psychological torture quite marked “, lamented the artist.
At this point, the artist has stated that Hamlet Lavastida “they want to prosecute for his ideas, for his activism work with magnificent art”: “That this leads him to jail is a major step and we are here together to face it. and that other people do not go through what Hamlet is going through right now. “
Finally, the Mexican commissioner Cuauhtémoc Medina has emphasized the need to “intervene in the face of the flagrant violations in this case.” “We are facing a very dangerous turn in the relations of the Cuban State and relations with artists and intellectuals,” the expert has warned.
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