Carolina Barrero and Solveig Font filed the petition to remove Culture Minister Alpidio Alonso with the Cuban parliament on Wednesday. The next day, Barrero was reportedly detained by police
Photo: 27N
The Cuban activist group 27N has filed a legal motion to parliament demanding the removal of the country’s culture minister Alpidio Alonso, one week after a free speech protest outside the ministry building in Havana sparked a violent confrontation from officials and the arrest of several arts professionals and journalists.
The curator Solveig Font and art historian Carolina Barrero filed the request on 3 February on behalf of more than 1,200 artists and activists who signed a petition calling for the culture minister’s dismissal. Among the allegations in the petition is that on 27 January Alonso committed a violent crime, was responsible for the arrest of peaceful demonstrators, and that his “outburst against young independent artists and journalists [...] was not only damaging to the protestors but also represented an excess use of power”. On Thursday, Barrero was reportedly detained by police while speaking on the phone with the artist Tania Bruguera.