Cuban police release and then again detain performance artist Tania Bruguera

Cuban police release and then again detain performance artist Tania Bruguera
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD MWHITEFIELD@MIAMIHERALD.COM
12/31/2014 7:00 AM 12/31/2014 9:06 PM

In the first test of U.S. commitment to upholding human rights in Cuba
since Washington and Havana announced normalization of diplomatic ties,
the U.S. State Department said it was "deeply concerned" about this
week's crackdown on activists.

The State Department's response came late Tuesday — the same day the
Cuban government headed off a free-speech rally planned for Havana's
Revolution Square by arresting and detaining activists who planned to
take up a microphone and individually share their thoughts and concerns
about Cuba's future for one minute each.

Cuban expatriate artist Tania Bruguera, who spearheaded the event
organized by the #YoTambienExijo (I also demand) movement, was arrested
Tuesday morning in anticipation of the afternoon rally, freed briefly
Wednesday afternoon and then once again detained. She had planned to
hold a news conference at the Monument to the Victims of the Maine along
Havana's Malecon at 4 p.m.

"We are deeply concerned about the latest reports of detentions and
arrests by Cuban authorities of peaceful civil society members and
activists," the State Department said in a release, "including Luis
Quintana Rodriguez, Antonio Rodiles, Danilo Maldonado, Reinaldo Escobar,
Marcelino Abreu Bonora and Eliécer Ávila." Dissident groups also
reported at least several more confirmed detentions.

"We strongly condemn the Cuban government's continued harassment and
repeated use of arbitrary detention, at times with violence, to silence
critics, disrupt peaceful assembly and freedom expression, and
intimidate citizens," the State Department said.

Blogger Yoani Sánchez said she was placed under house arrest and several
other independent journalists were warned against covering the event by
State Security officers. Sánchez's husband, Escobar, and Avila were
arrested when they left the Nuevo Vedado building where Escobar and
Sánchez live.

Sánchez's independent news service 14ymedio reported Wednesday that
Escobar had been released Tuesday night and that two police patrols
stationed outside the building where she lives had been withdrawn. Avila
also was released.

After her initial detention, Bruguera was taken to the de Acosta police
station. In a telephone conversation posted by #YoTambienExijo, Bruguera
said authorities confiscated her passport and wanted her to sign a
declaration that the intention of her planned event was to create a
public disturbance. She said she refused.

Bruguera,who lives in the United States and specializes in political
art, arrived in Cuba Friday. When she was first released, she said she
had been led to believe the other activists also had been freed but that
Cuban authorities had lied.

Although human rights groups and Cuban exile organizations came to
Bruguera's defense, the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba
said the aborted rally shouldn't in any sense be interpreted as "an
artistic work" but rather as a "political provocation" that is counter
to the negotiations to normalize diplomatic relations between the two
countries.

The United States and Cuba announced Dec. 17 that after 53 years of
isolation, Havana and Washington would renew diplomatic relations. At
his year-end news conference two days later, President Barack Obama said
that didn't mean that "over the next two years we can anticipate them
taking certain actions that we may end up finding deeply troubling
either inside of Cuba or with respect to their foreign policy."

The president said the United States would "continue to press on issues
of democracy and human rights, which we think are important" and that
normalizing relations "gives us a greater opportunity to have influence
with that government than not."

The White House has said that it plans to make human rights and
democracy major themes at April's Summit of the Americas, which both
Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro are expected to attend.

"Freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly are internationally
recognized human rights, and the Cuban government's lack of respect for
these rights, as demonstrated by today's detentions, is inconsistent
with Hemispheric norms and commitments," the State Department said. "We
urge the Government of Cuba to end its practice of repressing these and
other internationally protected freedoms and to respect the universal
human rights of Cuban citizens.

"We have always said we would continue to speak out about human rights,
and as part of the process of normalization of diplomatic relations, the
United States will continue to press the Cuban government to uphold its
international obligations and to respect the rights of Cubans to
peacefully assemble and express their ideas and opinions, just like
their fellow members of civil society throughout the Americas are
allowed to do."

El Nuevo Herald staff writer Nora Gámez Torres contributed to this report.

Source: Cuban police release and then again detain performance artist
Tania Bruguera | The Miami Herald -
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