Academic accuses Abel Prieto of violating "every ethical principle" for attacking Juan Vilar's documentary

TheCuban Television The documentary “La Habana de Fito” was shown this Saturday without authorization from its director.Juan Vilar nor the audiovisual production company,after having been censored by the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT),

The decision, which could have incurred illegalities by hindering or invalidating international commitments assumed by its director and the production company, has generated a heated controversy on social networks.

Faced with rejection and criticism from intellectuals, filmmakers, journalists and Cuban civil society activists, MINCULT authorities have come out to defend the decision, despite its authoritarian nature and contempt for the rights of the director of the documentary.

Among the voices of the officials who tried to ridicule the indignation of the “La Habana de Fito” team, that of the president of Casa de las Américas stood out,Abel Prieto Jiménez, who accused Vilar of“shady intentions” to generate controversy.

“The superficial and irresponsible way of treating some passages of our history in the documentary made it necessary for us toClean Magda invite historiansElier Ramirez andJose Luis Mendez and the journalist and researcherPedro de la Hoz"said Prieto Jiménez, thanking the presence of pro-government commentators in the space.Critical Spectator.

After the censorship that prevented Vilar from screening the documentary at the headquarters of the El Ciervo Encantado theater group, the directorsent a letter to Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel showing his disagreement with the measure, which he described "as a deplorable act that imposes a biased view on the documentary and subjects Fito's testimony to political questions or historical credulity."

For Prieto Jiménez, an intellectual who lives in his ivory tower and who directs a Parnassian institution like Casa de las Américas, “art is ruined if it is mixed with political provocation.”

This Sunday the intellectualAlina Bárbara López Hernández, coordinator of the independent mediaYoung Cuba, responded to the post of the former Minister of Culture, accusing him of violating “every ethical principle.”

"It is a shame that they did not dare to invite Vilar [to] the television studios to explain his point of view as a creator, instead of trying to discredit him as you do (…) It is a shame that they disrespect Fito Páez by presenting him as someone easily manipulated. It is a shame that you hold a high position in a cultural institution. It is a shame that there is so much lack of values, honor and so much illegality and impunity among the commissioners of culture," the researcher considered in her comments..

Regulated by the regime for their solidarity towards the journalist and writerJorge Fernandez Era, the intellectual asked herself in another of her posts.social networks, “if all [this] disproportionate and articulated campaign really aims to distract public opinion from the manifesto signed by more than forty intellectuals and artists at the Madrid Book Fair, in which the Cuban government is criticized (…) for the lack of freedoms and repression of freedom of expression.”

“It is signed, among others,Joan Manuel Serrat, Gioconda Belli, Alexis Diaz Pimienta, Pillar of the River and several directors of Spanish cultural institutions," said the historian, who forgot to mention among the signatories the Cuban playwright and exiled promoter of the Civic March for Change,Yunior García Aguilera.

Several colleagues commented on López Hernández's publications. Among them, the writerÁngel Santiesteban-Prats, who stated that "Abel is a case that was lost a long time ago. He forgot about culture and even his own shame. He will pass as that, just another commissioner of the dictatorship."

"This man could not say anything else. Abel Prieto is justifying his life of luxury and the perks that the government gives him. In addition to lying, he fears losing his privileges. He is dead, of fear and lies," said the journalistJorge Carpio.