Cuban group Gente de Zona excluded from concert in Miami

The exclusion of the Gente de Zona duo from the annual New Year’s Eve concert organized by Cuban-American artist Armando Christian Pérez, known as Pitbull, in downtown Miami marks yet another attack on cultural exchange.

Media from the southern state of Florida reported earlier this week that the Cuban duo was removed from the program at the request of local politicians, including Mayor Francis Suarez.

Last month, a concert by another Cuban artist, singer Haila Maria Mompie, whom Suarez himself named ‘persona non grata’, was cancelled.

In June, the Miami City Commission passed a resolution to ask the US Congress to veto the hiring of Cuban artists.

That measure, sponsored by the mayor and Commissioner Manolo Reyes, urged the federal legislature to enact a law that allows states and local governments to prohibit the hiring of performers and artists who perform or live in Cuba or are financed by the Caribbean country.

The resolution questions the importance of the existing cultural exchange between both nations, which is defended by numerous figures on both sides, and appeals to the pretext of alleged human rights violations to reject such relations.