Democracy prize to independent libraries in Cuba

Stockholm, March 7th 2002 - Press release

For more information, please contact press secretary
Joakim Bergström at: +46 707 727447

The Liberal Party of Sweden (folkpartiet liberalerna) has decided to award its ”Lars Leijonborg Democracy Prize” to Berta Mexidor Vazquez and Gisela Delgado Sablón, as representatives of independent libraries in Cuba.

Berta Mexidor Vazquez will be awarded the prize at a ceremony in

connection with the centenary of Folkpartiet liberalerna in Stockholm March 15th. Gisela Delgado Sablón will receive her prize at a ceremony in Stockholm whenever the Cuban authorities allow her to leave Cuba.

Lars Leijonborg describes the motives of the award:

- During the last few years I have followed the work of the independent libraries in Cuba. It has been very edifying to see how fast the library movement has grown and in a! pioneering way has offered more and more Cubans the availability of literature and cultural activities that the cultural institutes run by the state do not offer.

- The freedom to choose books and to freely express oneself both on cultural and political issues is a fundamental human right and in my view a definite condition for a good society.

- The liberal movement in Sweden stems from the fight for cultural,

political and religious freedom and has always regarded the general

education as a guarantee for an open society.

- The independent libraries in Cuba have activated the international

debate on the monopoly of information in Cuba and have shown that ordinary people around the world by sending books or bringing books when travelling to Cuba can contribute to the opening up of Cuba.

- With this prize, I and the liberal party of Sweden, want to show our full support of the hard work Berta Mexidor Vazquez and Gisela Delgado Sablón have ! put into the library movement the last years.

The Lars Leijonborg Democracy Prize consists of the dividend of a fund that was started in connection with Mr Leijonborgs 50th anniversary. The prize is divided in two parts: a gift of 1,000 US$ each to the recipients, and a sum of 3,500 US$ to a fund-raising drive in Sweden with the aim of providing books to the independent libraries in Cuba.