Cuban regime bans reggaeton by decree

The new provision which requires artists to become professionals and establish links with the Ministry of Culture sparked controversy in Cuba. Designed to "protect culture" and sanction the use of badist or vulgar language, Decree 349 refers to reggaeton, a growing rhythm on the island..

It also condemns "the professional intrusion", in a country with conservative talents but where artistic spontaneity reigns, with musicians "in the ear", who grow in old Havana playing tourist advice and baptized in "soperos" soup).

The new standard, which replaces that of 1997, also provides for sanctions for the one that violates the limits of "sounds and noises", disrespectfully uses patriotic symbols. or maintain "conduct contrary to the norms and regulations in force in the field of cultural policy".

The norm too gives inspectors the ability to verdict and has been clbadified by artists, even government supporters, as "incomplete", "nebulous" or "obscure".

The most radical ones called him "gag decree"when the new constitution, which will be the subject of a referendum on February 24, devotes artistic creation as "free".

"I think that in the context of the current Cuba and even more with the Constitution (…), there is no room for a decree for there to be gaps, questionable spaces and clouds or nebulae, or to leave some uncertainty, "said the famous singer-songwriter. Tony Ávila, 47 years old.

The president himself Miguel Diaz-Canel recently admitted that the subject "should have been further discussed and better explained". He signed the decree on April 20, a day after the replacement of Raúl Castro as Cuban President.

"We will apply it gradually as we reach this consensus," said his Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, on 6 December, the day before it came into effect.

The cultural policy was elaborated by the leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016) in 1961 and is summarized as follows: "In the revolution, everything, against the revolution, nothing".

349 emphasizes that the dissemination or marketing of the artistic product must be done by "the cultural institution to which it corresponds". "We will not give up the work of the institutions," said Minister Alonso on television. "We will not privatize them, the role of institutions is at the center of the cultural program of the revolution."