Photo: Archive/RHC

Havana, June 13 (RHC)-- Casa de las Américas issued a communique, entitled «Del lado de Don Quijote» or in English (On Don Quixote’s side). It condemns the statement that circulated recently in the Spanish capital with the title ‘La literatura, siempre del lado de la libertad y de la democracia’ (Literature always on the side of freedom and democracy).

‘La Literatura….’ demands the return of so-called democracy and respect for human rights in countries, which the signatories charge are totalitarian regimes, marked by death, imprisonment, serious deprivation, outright confiscations and exile.

The Havana-based cultural institution notes that the demand of the signatories would seem a completely fair claim, were it not for a small detail. It refers specifically to the land of Rubén Darío (Nicaragua), Dulce María Loynaz (Cuba), Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala) and Rómulo Gallegos (Venezuela).

Casa de las Américas calls attention to a marked interest on the part of the signatories in joining the campaign unleashed by corporate media against Latin American governments that refuse to obey Washington’s dictates and the centuries-old Monroe Doctrine.

It further describes as a ‘major public embarrassment’ that those who consider free speech a fundamental right, use it to fabricate lies, harass and attack others, in an attempt to justify unilateral sanctions against the targeted countries and their people, including also those nations’ writers.

Casa stresses that the signatories of the statement have placed themselves at the service of those, who try to destroy each and every emancipatory process in Latin America, and away from everything that Don Quixote, the emblematic character created by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra stands for –freedom, justice and utopias.

«Not by chance, Don Quixote was the first literary masterpiece published in Cuba after the 1959 Revolution. Cuba stands by everything that Don Quixote represents and symbolizes, » concluded the communique issued by Casa de las Américas.