More than 100 intellectuals demand democracy and respect for human rights in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua

More than a hundred intellectuals from Ibero-American countries demand theestablishment of democracyand therespect for human rights and freedom of expression to the dictatorial regimes of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The statement is part of the manifesto“Literature, always on the side of freedom and democracy” which, emerged at the initiative of the Nicaraguan writerGioconda Belli, was signed by personalities from Spain, Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba, and read last Friday at the82 Madrid Book Fair.

Belli, whoShe was stripped of her nationality by the Daniel Ortega regime, shared the reading of the document at the Madrid fair with the Spanish writerRosa Montero, the Cuban actor and playwrightYunior Garcia and the Venezuelan authorJuan Carlos Chirinos.

Among the hundred personalities who subscribe to the declaration also include the Nicaraguan writerSergio Ramirez, Cervantes Prize 2017; the Spanish singer-songwriterJoan Manuel Serrat, the ArgentinianMartin Caparros, the MexicanJorge Volpi and the cubansWendy Guerra andThis Abraham Jiménez.

The manifesto demands "the establishment of democracy and respect for human rights in those countries where totalitarian regimes have left a trail of death,jail, dispossession, confiscations and exile for those who have opposed the installation of new dictatorships, or have fought against the permanence of old ones."

He maintains that they are “countries where critics are defined as traitors to the country and condemned in farces that they call'trials' without evidence or right to defense. Countries where citizens are subject to a regime of terror and espionage, citizens are stripped of their nationality, their property is confiscated, they are pushed into exile andthey are prohibited from returning”.

In these countries, the signatories warn, “language academies are closed and poetry festivals are closed, civil society is silenced and independent media are silenced.”

"It is necessary that those of us who have the word as a sacred right make ourselves heard and do not allow oblivion and indifference to fall on the land of Rubén Darío, Dulce María Loynaz, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Rómulo Gallegos, and that of so many great exponents of our language," warns another part of the manifesto.

Likewise, it urges "the protagonists of the world of letters to work actively, each from their position, but also in a coordinated manner (...), to fight against systematic abuses and violations of human rights."

In statements toMartí News, the playwright Yunior García said that “they cannot be allowed to continue with a hypocritical discourse, while they crush the rights of their citizens, censor their artists, persecute those who dare to raise their voices and sell themselves as victims for the world".