U.S. Closes Door on Cuba’s Silvio

HAVANA TIMES, May 4 – The US State Department did not authorize Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez to participate in the tributes to 90-year-old musician Pete Seeger to which he had been invited, reported IPS on Monday.

“As a worker of Cuban culture I still feel as blockaded and discriminated against as by other [US] governments,” said Rodriguez in a message from Paris.

Besides prohibiting US citizens from visiting Cuba without a special hard-to-get permit, the nearly 50-year blockade on the island also works to stifle cultural and academic exchange as well as trade between the two neighboring countries.

The Obama administration says it is reviewing US-Cuba policy but so far no high level dialogue has been announced. The US State Department continues to put preconditions on advancing with rapprochement with Cuba, something Cuba’s leadership considers totally unacceptable.