Cuba Again Arrests Artist Seeking Dissidents’ Release

Cuba Again Arrests Artist Seeking Dissidents' Release
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLDJAN. 1, 2015

MEXICO CITY — A performance artist advocating free speech in Cuba was
arrested for the third time in two days on Thursday, her supporters
said, along with several dissidents after they went to a jail demanding
the release of government opponents rounded up in a crackdown this week.

The artist, Tania Bruguera, who was born in Cuba and splits her time
between there and New York, had made clear in statements after her
initial detention this week that she was determined to see the release
of everyone else who had been detained.

It was Cuba's biggest move against the opposition in the two weeks since
the United States and Cuba announced they would renew diplomatic relations.

Human rights monitors said that up to 50 government opponents were
arrested around the time that Ms. Bruguera was detained Tuesday before
she could carry out an open mike performance in Havana's Revolution
Square in which she planned to ask citizens to speak about their visions
for the country.

Most of the activists were eventually released. But the independent news
site 14ymedio.com, whose editor was briefly detained, said about 15
dissidents remained in custody into Thursday, though some were released
as the day wore on.

Ms. Bruguera, after a second arrest and release on Wednesday, went to a
municipal jail on Thursday along with several dissidents, pressing for
the release of the other detainees. It was unclear why she and the
others were taken into custody, and the government made no statement.

Ms. Bruguera had said her performance would test the climate for change
in Cuba under the diplomatic thaw with the United States, which
announced softened restrictions on trade and travel but promised to keep
pressure on Cuba to improve human rights. The State Department condemned
the arrests of several dissidents on Tuesday but has not commented on
Ms. Bruguera.

The Cuban authorities called her plan a political provocation. Although
it denied her a permit for her performance, it had sought to negotiate
for an alternative site, but Ms. Bruguera said the sides could not agree.

Ted Henken, a professor at Baruch College who has written on social
movements in Cuba, said Ms. Bruguera had not been known as a major
dissident figure, but her art often reflected perceived political
injustices in Cuba and elsewhere. The daughter of a Cuban diplomat, she
has explored in her work what she considers the promise and the failings
of the revolution.

"It's a good thing," Mr. Henken said, "that the welcome news two weeks
ago of the diplomatic breakthrough between the U.S. and Cuban
governments is accompanied now with a vivid reminder that the Cuban
government still needs to open up to the Cuban people and begin
dismantling the often overlooked internal embargo it holds on the
exercise of fundamental freedoms of the Cuban people."

Source: Cuba Again Arrests Artist Seeking Dissidents' Release -
NYTimes.com -
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/world/americas/cuba-again-arrests-artist-seeking-dissidents-release.html?_r=0