Artists killed in Latin America for exercising their freedom of artistic expression

This is an executive summary of the original report produced in Spanish that focuses only on violence against artists, like targeted killings related to the exercise of their right to freedom of expression and artistic creativity in Latin America. In 2021, CADAL recorded 378 attacks on freedom of artistic expression, of which 23 were murders. Artists and cultural workers who participated in protests in Colombia and Cuba were harassed, detained, and repressed. Musicians and cultural leaders were also involved in the violence between organized crime groups in countries such as Mexico and Brazil.

«Arte en resistencia»: digital exhibition by Movimiento San Isidro

«We are proud to present Arte en Resistencia, a virtual 3D gallery experience we are launching in tandem with the Oslo Freedom Forum. Held in partnership with Human Rights Foundation’s Art in Protest program, Arte en Resistencia reflects on the phenomenon of how art as a form of resistance has become a cultural practice in Cuba. Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) artists and protagonists of the Cuban artivism movement Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Amaury Pacheco, Yasser Castellanos, Afrik3Reina, and Katherine Bisquet are featured in this unique virtual space».

Brazil lights the bonfire of the arts

I write my comment on this hostile environment to the arts and culture in Brazil in a time of coronavirus and social isolation, in which so many of us are sick and several of us have already died, including artists such as Aldir Blanc, Rubem Fonseca, Sérgio Sant’Anna, Moraes Moreira y Flávio Migliaccio. The Bolsonaro government was not in solidarity with any of these losses, preferring to ignore them while continuing with its conservative agenda.

Report on the risk of imagining

The Danish NGO Freemuse has produced a comprehensive report calling it the “State of Artistic Freedom”: a detailed survey of different abuses of the right of expression enshrined in the Universal Charter of Human Rights. It highlights the state of emergency in which thousands of artists and intellectuals live and survive in different parts of the world. There is no ideology, no system, no political regime that does not have its eye on artists.

Threats to the freedom of artistic expression

In the annual report presented on 15 April 2020, Freemuse points out a continuing deterioration of freedom of expression in general and of art in particular, which translates into 711 attacks in 93 countries and shows that art continues to be a hazardous activity that can lead to harassment, censorship, imprisonment and even death. To successfully monitor this development, Freemuse compiles and analyses statistical data, as well as thorough interviews with artists around the world. The comparative analysis allows to identify global trends and recognize those areas where interference is necessary to defend the freedom of artistic expression.

CADAL signs a cooperation agreement with Freemuse

The agreement establishes that CADAL will be in charge of monitoring, documenting, denouncing and following up on violations to artistic freedom in Latin America. Freemuse places emphasis on human rights in its vision of artistic freedom, as it provides an international legal framework and lays the foundation for accountability, equality, non-discrimination and participation.

Juan Pablo Caicedo: «There can be no art without critical thinking»

Colombian plastic artist, Caicedo works in various media and generates reflections on the context in which the different communities are. He was collaborating with Amaury Pacheco, a Cuban artist, and is interested in creating bridges and ties between Latin American artists and their Cuban colleagues so that they can make free and dignified art.

Freemuse and CADAL alert for artistic repression in Cuba

International human rights organisation Freemuse and CADAL, based in Denmark and Argentina respectively, express their concern about the resurgence of repression of referents of Cuban independent culture and express their solidarity with the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, recently arbitrarily detained.

Meeting with Freemuse colleagues

The General Director of CADAL, Gabriel Salvia, held a meeting in Copenhagen with Dwayne Mamo, Klaus Dik Nielsen, and David Y. Herrera, in which they shared ideas about how to deepen institutional collaboration in the promotion of artistic freedom, especially in Latin America.

CADAL and Freemuse call for intervention to save free speech and cultural expression in Cuba

CADAL and Freemuse call on the international community to raise concern to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel that the new decree is inconsistent with international human rights standards, and sends a strong signal that failure to comply with human rights principles may force the international community to withdraw its economic support from Cuba. To access the joint statement subscribed by Gabriel Salvia, General Director of CADAL, and Dr. Srirak Plipat, Executive Director of Freemuse, click here

Joint petition to the European Union by CADAL and FREEMUSE

Both institutions requested that the Delegation of the European Union in Cuba includes in their cultural cooperation programs the independent artistic initiatives looking to defend the right to freedom of expression and not extending the illegality status that government has impose to them.

Artistic Freedom Around the World

In the specific case of Cuba, the report questions the fact that artistic freedom on the island is subject to the aims of the Revolution and everything that is not framed within this premise is censored and repressed.