In recent days, prestigious Cuban artists and intellectuals have been the target of aggressions, encouraged, promoted and carried out by elements of the transnational extreme right in certain European countries. The most recent examples have been the condemnable and unpunished harassment of the Buena Fe duo in certain venues in Spain and the ignominious revocation of the status of honorary president of the Poetry Market event in France from the renowned writer Nancy Morejón.
Such manifestations of sick hatred are nothing new. A few decades ago, the Cuban people and the world witnessed a scandalous act of vandalism against the work of the renowned artist Manuel Mendive, which was burned in the streets of Miami, and attacks on the audience of a major concert by the Van Van orchestra in that city, which they were unable to prevent.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly denounces the fascist acts committed against exponents of national culture.
It also rejects the strong pressures, intimidation and blackmail to which businessmen, cultural promoters, owners of establishments and foreign cultural entities that have been in charge of organising the tours and performances of our artists in these countries have been subjected.
The Ministry recognises that these are isolated events, staged by minority groups that represent retrograde forces of neo-fascist ideology and receive copious financial resources from organisations at the service of imperialism, with the clear purpose of denigrating Cuban culture and our artists, blurring the historical and patriotic memory of our people and their cultural identity, and destroying the Cuban Revolution.
In almost all the international venues where Cuban artists and intellectuals have been performing, even in the countries where events such as those described above have taken place, they have received the best of welcomes from the vast majority of audiences who recognise in them ambassadors of the best values and expressions of our culture.
Cuban culture, which suffers the impact of the inhuman and illegal economic blockade, is the bearer of messages of peace, dialogue and tolerance. It rejects the barbarism, hatred and violence that the imperialist monopoly interests of the United States and some of its allies are trying to impose.
Solidarity, peace and commitment to art will continue to be the premises of our artists, in the face of violence, impunity, fascism and the prevailing cultural colonisation.
Cuba will not renounce to exhibit its culture in any corner of the world and will respond to every aggression with firmness and unity.
Havana, 1 June 2023.