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Cuba
Shuns Frankfurt Book Fair
Deutsche
Welle. Germany, September
4, 2003.
Cuban President Castro: "Germany is an
accomplice to the United States"
The Frankfurt Book Fair will have to do without
Cuba this October. The communist country cancelled
its participation after Germany withdrew from
the 2004 Book Fair in Havana.
The letter didn't come as a surprise. In it the
Cuban Book Institute told the Frankfurt Book Fair
management Cuba would not take part in the industry's
biggest trade event. "It's clear the Cuban
Culture Ministry is behind the letter," book
fair spokesman Holger Ehling said.
The cancellation came in response to Germany
pulling out of the International Book Fair planned
for Havana in January 2004, where it was supposed
to be the guest of honor. In mid-August 2003 the
German government said Germany would not take
part in the fair after relations between Cuba
and the European Union turned frosty over the
Carribbean island nation's reinstatement of the
death penalty and a crackdown on dissenters. Cuba
executed three men who hijacked a boat in an attempt
to escape to the United States and jailed 75 dissidents
for up to 28 years in the spring.
"The European Union had already agreed on
diplomatic sanctions against Cuba in early June.
Government delegations were supposed to stay away
from the island and cultural exchange was supposed
to be reduced. We complied with that," a
spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry said
of its decision to withdraw from the book event.
German businesses and private individuals may
still travel to Cuba, but they will not be supported
by the Foreign Ministry, so it's unlikely that
many German authors or publishers will attend
the Cuban fair in January.
A Trojan horse?
Cultural exchange between Germany and Cuba has
intensified in recent years. The two countries
signed a cultural accord in 2002, and the Goethe
Institute, which promotes Germany abroad, planned
to set up shop in Havana. Since then German literature,
art and music has been drawing more attention
on the island.
But now things have been put on ice. Cuban President
Fidel Castro deemed the EU the "U.S.'s Trojan
horse" in July. And the Cuban Book Institute
communiqué also accused Germany and the
EU of "directing aggression" against
the country in complicity with the United States.
Arturo Arango, a writer who lives in Havana,
said the German government's shouldn't have cancelled
its participation in the fair. In an interview
with the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, he said
the tit-for-tat behavior hurts readers and intellectuals,
who have no real power in Cuba, more than anyone
else.
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