Cuba shuts down dialogue, blames the U.S. for protesting artists who demand more freedoms

It is a script that Cubans know well.

Less than 24 hours after the Ministry of Culture reached an agreement in response to an unprecedented public protest by more than 300 young artists and intellectuals demanding freedom of expression and the release of several members of the San Isidro Movement, the Cuban government unleashed a wave of attacks against what Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel called a “media show” and an example of U.S. meddling in the island’s internal affairs.

“They have put on a media show for us. There is an unconventional warfare strategy to try to overthrow the revolution,” Díaz-Canel said at a political event organized by the government on Sunday. “This is the last attempt by the Trumpistas and the anti-Cuban mafia. ... They had on their agenda that before the end of the year the Cuban revolution had to fall.”

The Cuban leader shut down hopes of a dialogue with the young protesters who stood before the Ministry of Culture on Friday to protest the harassment of artists, journalists, and academics of the San Isidro Movement, which was created a couple of years ago to advocate for freedom of expression on the island.

“We will not tolerate interference from the North. We discuss our problems among ourselves and sovereignly decide. And here, there is space for dialogue for everything that stands for socialism, for the revolution,” said the Cuban leader, who wore a T-shirt with the Cuban flag.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the San Isidro project founders, was arrested last year for wearing a Cuban flag as a garment during an artistic performance.

Alleging the violation of health protocols related to COVID-19 on Thursday night, members of the Ministry of the Interior broke into Otero Alcántara’s house and arrested a dozen people, five of whom were on a hunger strike. Several were later released, but Alcántara was taken to the Manuel Fajardo hospital in Havana, where he remains under surveillance, members of the group reported Monday afternoon.

“It’s a kidnapping,” said Michel Matos, one of the movement coordinators, who pointed out that they had not had direct contact with Otero Alcántara.

Rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez, known as Maykel “Osorbo,” was also released but is reportedly continuing the hunger strike, Matos said. Castillo Pérez would be willing to abandon the strike, Matos clarified, if Otero Alcántara asked him directly.

The strikers were protesting the eight-month sentence of rapper Denis Solís, accused of contempt of the authorities.

The arrests ignited a spark in the cultural community. On Saturday, hundreds of young artists, writers and journalists met in front of the Ministry of Culture, demanding to speak with the minister. They remained there despite police deployment, power cuts, and the government’s blockade of social media.

Thirty of them met in the evening with Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas. At the end of the meeting, writer Katherine Bisquet informed the media that the Ministry of Culture representatives had committed to a dialogue with the young protesters, stopping the police harassment of independent artists and taking an interest in Solis’ case.

At a news conference on Saturday, other group members present at that meeting said they voiced more immediate demands, including reviewing Solis’ case to secure his release, said artist Tania Bruguera.

“We asked the vice minister of culture to use his power and his contacts with the Ministry of the Interior to save the life of a Cuban artist, which is his responsibility,” she added.

In terms that are usually only used in public by known dissidents, the young protesters openly demanded “for all citizens, the right to disagree, the right to have rights, to say that things are bad,” said visual artist Julio Llópiz Casal at the news conference.

But on Saturday, Rojas appeared on a TV program where members of the San Isidro Movement and young people who demanded freedom of expression were again accused of being mercenaries paid by the United States government and members of the Cuban exile.

For decades, Cuba’s government has responded to internal criticism with accusations of alleged plots orchestrated in the United States and Miami to subvert the revolution. The government response usually involves discrediting opponents in the press; the publication of videos showing images of their meetings with foreign diplomats, preferably from the United States; the organization of demonstrations in support of the government accompanied by music; and acts of repudiation that are presented as spontaneous.

The Díaz-Canel government responded in the same way. In addition to the television program and various articles in the official press denigrating the protesters, on Sunday the government organized a demonstration described as “spontaneous” in the state media. During the raid to detain the San Isidro activists, the authorities also set up an act of repudiation near Alcántara’s house, according to images shown by Razones de Cuba, a website linked to the State Security.

The artists who participated in the Ministry of Culture meeting quickly denounced the government, saying it broke its promises.

“We have been quite shockingly surprised that in less than 24 hours, the Ministry of Culture has broken three of the five agreements that they had supposedly accepted,” Bruguera said. “They were asked to recognize that they cannot accuse Cuban artists who think differently of being mercenaries. There is a law here that can condemn you for being a mercenary, that is irresponsible of the Ministry of Culture.”

Llópiz Casal denied that the members of the group meeting with the officials were “mercenaries” or “CIA” agents.

“That is a lie,” he said. “The fact of accusing [dissenters] of being mercenaries and a CIA agent is a [discoursive] dispositive that has been used for 60 years to remove the issue of freedom of expression from the debate.”

At a conference Monday afternoon, members of the San Isidro Movement insisted that they remained open to a dialogue with the authorities.

“We continue to believe that the government has a unique opportunity to dialogue with those who disagree. The government has to listen to its people, to the people who think differently,” Matos said.

The internal conflict threatens to further strain relations between Cuba and the United States just as there is a transition to a new government in Washington.

On Saturday, the Cuban Foreign Ministry summoned the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Timothy Zuñiga-Brown, to inform him that “Cuba does not allow the United States or any state to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.”

Members of the future administration of President-elect Joe Biden have sent messages of support to the San Isidro Movement and young Cubans, in a sign that the new administration will be vocal on human rights violations on the island.

“We support the Cuban people in their struggle for liberty and echo calls for the Cuban government to release peaceful protestors,” Jake Sullivan, appointed as National Security Advisor in the upcoming Biden administration, wrote on Twitter. “The Cuban people must be allowed to exercise the universal right to freedom of expression.’