Angry Cubans held a protest in front of the Town Hall in Amstelveen this afternoon. The group demands an explanation from Mayor Tjapko Poppens for his presence at the opening of the exhibition ‘Korda: Cuba, Che, Glamour’, in the Cobra Museum. According to them, that exhibition glorifies the ‘murderer Che Guevara’.
Cubans demonstrate in Amstelveen. – NH News
Che Guevara is the right-hand man of former President Fidel Castro. “Che Guevara is a murderer, not a hero. He killed thousands of people,” said Victor Dueñas, president of Foundation NewGeneration. On behalf of the Cuban community, this organization submitted a letter of protest to the municipality of Amstelveen and the Cobra Museum last week.
Mayor Tjapko Poppens was present at the opening of the exhibition, which was opened by ambassador of Cuba Anet Pina Rivero. On his Twitter is a photo of him standing next to Pina Rivero. “Very worthwhile”, the mayor writes about the exhibition.
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The group of Cubans is offended and comes to ask Poppens for an explanation. “Why does a democratically elected mayor support the dictatorship in Cuba?” asks Dueñas. Poppens is not present at the Town Hall today, but the group does issue the protest letter again in the hope of getting a response.
In a response, the municipality informed NH Nieuws that the mayor ‘was present at the opening of the exhibition to officially receive the Cuban ambassador, because of years of diplomatic relations’. The opening was performed by the ambassador. The municipality also refers to the reaction that the Cobra Museum gave earlier.
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Reaction Cobra Museum
Stefan van Raay, director of the Cobra Museum, said at the time that ‘the exhibition revolves entirely around the artist Korda’. According to the director, the purpose of the exhibition would be to introduce the public to Korda’s legacy and to free him from the ‘heavy weight of that one photo’.
“This historical retrospective of Korda gives the Dutch public the opportunity to get to know all aspects of his work, including the political meetings in the first nine years of the Cuban Revolution,” said Van Raay.
The director therefore finds it logical that the portrait of Guevara is also included in this: “A photo that has been reproduced and commercialized worldwide, but also used by many others for different ideological purposes.”