Miguel Diaz-Canel defended censorship and said the revolution justified the lack of freedom of expression in Cuba

Freedom of expression in Cuba, which Cuban artists and dissidents so desperately demand and throughout the world, The revolution is limited to the mere existence of the revolution, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a speech published on Tuesday.

“Freedom of expression in the revolution is still restricted to the revolution’s right to exist”Diaz-Canel, who is also the first secretary of the Communist Party (PCC, Fred), said in a Monday night meeting with a group of intellectuals and artists.

We will not abandon the revolution or its spaces. We must and we can manage it better, knowing more about everything and everyone.”Emphasized in a work commemorating the 60th anniversary of the speech “Words for Intellectuals”, in 1961 Fidel Castro outlined the cultural policy of his nascent socialist revolution.

On that occasion, Castro asserted: “Inside the revolution, everything, outside the revolution, nothing,” words with multiple interpretations in those six decades, And that the Diaz-Canel government recognizes its authority.

“Everything is inside the revolution” means that the only thing that is not under discussion is the revolution. It is not a fact in dispute. It is the same truth, the reason for that meeting,” Diaz-Canel said. However, “We firmly believe that the artwork is not only right but The mission to provoke, risk, challenge, wonder, rise and also liberate“he added. “Subjecting it to self-censorship and cowardice is an act against culture“.

But In Cuba in 2021, there is no place for the usual annexations or the mercenaries of the moment. Diaz-Canel stated.

On November 27, 300 young intellectuals and artists organized a Unprecedented protest In front of the Ministry of Culture demands freedom of expression. Entity officials received a group of protesters and decided to start a dialogue.

“There was talk of dialogue and it finally started, but it did not give the results that it could and so wasted an excellent opportunity to open spaces for discussion and to think that any society needs a lot and that this is fundamental in Cuba.”, the novelist Leonardo Padura said in a recent interview.

“What happened on the 27th of November is a sign of a need that exists and exists. Then it was possible manipulationAnd the different readingsAttitudes, perhaps fundamentalists On the one hand, and on the other hand, it does not detract from the fact that it is a true claim.

(With information from AFP)

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