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FROM
CUBA
Party officials in Cuba disrupt arts students'
launch of papier-mâché boat
HAVANA, July 12 (Richard Roselló
/ www.cubanet.org) - Communist Party officials
in Batabanó stopped the launching
of a papier-mâché boat that
was somehow supposed to stand for drug addiction
and hauled three art students and their
professor to Party headquarters to "discuss
the incident" July 3.
The three students at the provincial School
for Arts Instructors, who said they had
obtained a permit from the local police
chief, were carrying the boat on their backs
the approximately one-and-one-half miles
between Batabanó proper and Surgidero,
the port, when Party officials intercepted
them.
The students said they saw the end-of-the-school-year
project they had dubbed "Sinking Vices"
as a contribution to the campaign against
drugs being waged nationally. Accordingly,
they had made arrangements with the vice-president
of the local writers' association to videotape
the event.
Once at the water's edge, they intended
to launch and board the approximately 10-foot
boat they had adorned with references to
alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. Presumably,
the boat would have sunk rapidly since it
consisted of a wire structure covered with
papier-mâché.
All this is what presumably would have
happened if, as they were carrying the boat
on their backs, Party officials hadn't got
wind of a rumor involving rafters and the
presence of representatives from the press
and had not decided to take a hand in the
matter. Bystanders later described the confrontation
at the entrance to Surgidero as "ill-mannered
and rude," singling out the local Party
ideologue as a particular offender, and
blamed the officials' "uncompromising"
attitude for the lack of communication between
the two groups.
The students, after discussing the matter
with officials at the Party's municipal
headquarters, gave their names only as Carlos,
Jesús, and Julián, and said
officials had told them they had thought
the event might have been meant as a provocation
and had only intervened to protect them
from the wrath of the populace. The three
said officials also told them that for this
type of event, a police permit was not enough;
in future they should first get a permit
from the Party.
Party officials later explained that arts
projects such as these are unnecessary,
inasmuch as there is no alcoholism in Batabanó.
A local hand, with a possibly more jaundiced
view of affairs, pointed out three outlets
for alcoholic beverages within 200 feet
of the headquarters of the Communist Party
Municipal Committee of Batabanó and
ticked off the numerous instances in which
consumers and their brawls have
stumbled past the office's doors.
"And neither Party militants nor police
have ever interfered," he said.
Versión
original en español
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