Cuban Activist Arbitrarily Arrested Over a Letter Calling for the Resignation of Alpidio Alonso as Minister of Culture
Today, the San Isidro and the 27N Movement denounced the arbitrary arrest in the form of abduction of activist and art historian Carolina Barrero. She along with Solveig Font and in representation of 1,252 artists and intellectuals initiated a legal recourse in the National Assembly to demand the dismissal of Alpidio Alonso as Minister of Culture and member of the National Assembly over its direct involvement in physically attacking an independent journalist outside the Ministry of Culture on January 27.
"Carolina Barrero was put inside a police car and we lack information about the reason for her arrest or her whereabouts. The worst past is that they don't know either. They are acting with a mixture of despair and abuse,” said Anamelys Ramos, an art curator and San Isidro Movement activist in her Facebook account.
In the letter handed by Barrero to the National Assembly, Cuban artists and intellectuals wrote 11 reasons why they believed Alpidio Alonso should be dismissed.
SECOND: MEP, Alpidio Alonso in his zeal to prevent the legitimate exercise of the rights of several citizens, some of the artists, whom he should represent, grabbed the cell phone of a young person who was recording his behaviour. The unexpected and violent act on the part of the Minister led to the beginning of subsequent violent acts against protesters by other officials in the Ministry of Culture including Viceministers and other people who used force without cause or justification and coerced protesters to get into a bus against their own will."
Full text in Spanish of the letter handed by Solveig Font Carolina Barrero National Assembly on Feb 3, 2021:
Reference: 27N Movement on Facebook.
UPDATE:
Carolina Barrero was released on Thursday, February 4. This is what she wrote on her Facebook page about her arbitrary arrest:
“From 9 am in the morning I have been arrested in the Infanta and Manglar Police Station, the same place where we were taken on January 27. The interrogations were very long. The State Security insisted on finding links with organization and financial sources. They acted in bad faith [against] young people fighting for a better country. I do not belong to any group. I do not get financial support. Nobody tells me what I have to do except my own convictions. I firmly believe that institutions should respond with the citizenry and in the right of citizens to hold them accountable. The Minister should resign.”
