Havana/The Cuban artist and political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara He was taken today from the Guanajay maximum security prison, in the province of Artemisa, according to his official channels.
After the movement by the Cuban authorities, his current whereabouts, the conditions under which the transfer was carried out and the reasons that caused it are unknown. His family has already verified that the activist and leader of the San Isidro Movement is not in his usual home in the El Cerro neighborhood, in Havana.
Given the lack of transparency in the procedure, support networks and human rights groups remain on alert while awaiting new data.
The official platforms of Otero Alcántara have assured that they will continue updating urgently as soon as any verified information about their status and location is confirmed.
The activist and art historian Yanelis Núñez confirmed this Tuesday to the independent newspaper 14ymedio that Otero Alcántara’s release date from prison was July 9, just as recorded in the document delivered by the Supreme Court on the artist’s case and the fulfillment of his sentence.
“Today we found out from other prisoners that Luis has been taken out of prison, until now we do not know where he is. We have spoken with the family he has in Cuba and he is not at home. We are waiting to have more information to know where he is,” said Núñez, who resides in Madrid.
“The regime has put the option of exile for Luis Manuel on the table in recent months, but we do not have any type of certainty that this will happen in the next few hours or days. But it is something that is on the table, due to pressure from the regime itself,” added the activist.
Otero Alcántara had remained in prison since July 2021 after trying to participate in the 11J protests. He was sentenced in 2022 along with rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo five and nine years old for the crimes of “contempt” and “public disorder”, figures with ambiguous limits that allow political positions on the Island to be sanctioned. Since 2022, the Penal Code has incorporated the figure of “propaganda against the constitutional order”, used to imprison citizens who express themselves in ways as diverse as put up posters anti-government or publish your critical opinions on social networks.
During his time in prison, the artist starred in several hunger strikes and was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty Internationalwhile international organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and PEN International demanded his immediate release.
This Tuesday, the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, called the United States ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, a “liar”, during the intense debate of the General Assembly on the US embargo on the Island.
“They are not violent, what they do is write poetry and songs, and that is why the regime tries to put an end to them by putting them in jail”
Waltz responded by assuring that “the regime and its representatives do not want them to hear the following: that this month marks the anniversary of when thousands of Cubans took to the streets to ask for their freedom.”
“For 67 years, the regime has enriched itself by abusing its people, suffocating private companies, penalizing dissent with a communist economy,” said the ambassador.
Waltz then took a series of photographs of some artists detained by the Cuban Government, among them Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
“See their faces when they give their speeches, because they are in jail for asking for freedom. They are not violent, what they do is write poetry and songs, and that is why the regime tries to put an end to them by putting them in jail,” highlighted the ambassador, addressing the UN member states.
