New Zealand exhibit draws interest in Cuban Revolution

Militant/Felicity Coggan

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Mario Alzugaray Rodríguez, Cuba’s ambassador to New Zealand, introduced the art exhibit “I Will Die the Way I’ve Lived,” showing 15 watercolors by Antonio Guerrero, at the Linwood Community Art Centre here Oct. 30. Guerrero served over 16 years in U.S. prisons, framed up along with four other Cuban revolutionaries for their activity in defense of the Cuban Revolution. Guerrero painted the watercolors while in prison. He was released in 2014. All of the Cuban Five are now back in Cuba, continuing to defend their revolution.

The paintings are reproduced in a book by Pathfinder Press with commentary from Guerrero, as well as Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, two other members of the Five.

Fifty-six people attended the opening event, organized by the Christchurch Cuba Friendship Society. Asked about Cuba’s views on developments in Korea, Alzugaray said the source of the tensions on the Korean Peninsula is decades of U.S. wars and provocations there. “The U.S. government should get their troops out of Korea,” he said. “Why should anyone trust the opinion of the only country on earth that has ever used a nuclear bomb?”

Pointing to Washington’s baseless charges that the Cuban government is using “sonic weapons” to cause mystery illnesses among U.S. Embassy staff, he said that Washington sought “an excuse to freeze relations with Cuba and pull most of their diplomats from Havana.”

— RUTH GRAY