|
 Bruguera, the most high-profile of the detainees, was arrested
shortly after leaving her home in the morning and before
reaching the ministry of culture where the artists intended to
hold their protest, her mother, Argelia Fernandez, told Reuters.
The performance artist, who has been arrested before for
publicly protesting against the Communist government, was
released in the evening, Fernandez said, but immediately went to
the ministry to demonstrate against the arrests of other
artists.
"All I can do is show solidarity," Bruguera wrote on her
Facebook page early on Monday evening, posting a photo of
herself wearing a T-shirt with the words "No to the Decree 349".
"If they detain me, I will be on hunger and thirst strike."
Bruguera was reportedly detained again on Monday evening,
according to Iris Ruiz, an actress and the coordinator of what
has been a rare campaign in recent months against Decree 349,
one of the first pieces of legislation to be signed by Miguel
Diaz-Canel since he succeeded Raul Castro as president in April.
Fernandez told Reuters she had no means of locating her daughter
because her cellphone appeared to have been blocked by state
security.
Brief detentions are the standard response to opposition street
protests in a country that frowns on public dissent and views
dissidents as mercenaries in the pay of the United States to
subvert the government.
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Cuban officials do not typically comment on such police activity.
With Decree 349 due to come into force on Friday, protesters decided
to step up their campaign with a demonstration all week on the steps
of the culture ministry that would include poetry readings and
performances.
Ruiz said her husband, the poet Amaury Pacheco, and another artist
were detained after arriving together at the culture ministry on
Monday morning.
Three other artists who also headed there, including campaign leader
Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, could not be located, suggesting they
had also been detained, Ruiz said. Otero Alcantara's phone appeared
to be turned off.
Few Cuban artists have chosen to protest against the decree publicly
but unease is widespread in the island's creative community and
among Western diplomats in Havana. Amnesty International has called
it a "dystopian prospect".
Cuban authorities, however, have insisted it merely aims to prevent
tax evasion and the spread of bad, pseudo-culture, and say that the
issue is being manipulated by counter-revolutionaries.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Paul Tait)
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