Covering the “Eyes” of Claudio Fuentes

Covering the "Eyes" of Claudio Fuentes / Luis Felipe Rojas
Posted on February 28, 2016

Luis Felipe Rojas, Miami, 15 February 2016 — Cuban photographer and
dissident Claudio Fuentes was once again arrested on Sunday, 14
February, by forces of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) in
Havana. The Castro regime's gendarmes kept Fuentes from taking part in
the peaceful action #TodosMarchamos [We All March], which the Ladies in
White and dozens of activists put on in support of Human Rights.

Claudio Fuentes is an independent photographer who has been arrested on
numerous occasions for taking part in and photographing peaceful
activities of the internal dissidence in Cuba. His photographs reveal
victims of beatings, women who express their courage against the
threatening actions of the Cuban dictatorship, but he has also
photographed in an original manner life in Havana as he has lived it.

The information regarding the arrest of Claudio Fuentes was provided by
Ailer González, who in charge of artistic projects for State of SATS,
which is directed by Antonio Rodiles. The activist posted various photos
in which Fuentes can be seen being detained at the hands of the PNR and
officials from State Security. Similarly, González reproached the
journalist Fernando Ravsberg and others who blame the Cuban opposition
for not bringing together more people.

"…And how do you mobilize them under a totalitarian dictatorship where
there are these levels of control, harrassment and repression? Assisted
further by the Obama administration, the Vatican and even Kirill, the
czar of the Russian mafia?" asked the activist.

For over 10 months, diverse organizations and individual activists have
documented 41 consecutive Sundays in which the military forces have
violently repressed the Ladies in White during their march upon leaving
St. Rita Church, on 5th Avenue in the Miramar neighborhood in the Cuban
capital. The Forum for Rights and Liberties (FPDyL) has coordinated
support for the women.

Claudio probably is free at this hour, and frustrated because they did
not allow him to photograph that piece of Cuba not found in today's
tourist guides. If not, I send him all my solidarity — as on several
occasions he did with me, when the henchmen were detaining me and
minutely recording my life in a small town of eastern Cuba where the
tourists, businesspeople and celebrities did not, and still do not,
arrive to stroll impassively while looking the other way.

Source: Covering the "Eyes" of Claudio Fuentes / Luis Felipe Rojas |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/covering-the-eyes-of-claudio-fuentes-luis-felipe-rojas/