The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, figure of Cuban dissidence, goes into exile in Miami

The visual artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, emblematic figure of the new Cuban dissidence, arrived on Saturday July 18 in Miami to begin his exile in the United States, after having served a five-year prison sentence on the communist island.

Dressed in gray jogging pants, wearing a cap, a Cuban flag on his shoulders, decorated with the words “Homeland and Life” (“homeland and life”) – title awarded a Grammy Award in 2021, which has become an anthem for the Cuban political opposition against repression – the artist was welcomed by friends and human rights activists at Miami airport, noted Agence France-Presse (AFP). “What I really want is to work (…) because, I repeat, every minute I lose is another minute of dictatorship”declared the visual artist shortly after his arrival, during a meeting with human rights defenders and Cuban exiles.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, 38, became known in 2020 at the head of the San Isidro Movement, a protest gathering of artists and intellectuals. “I think there are a whole bunch of tools today to point people in a certain direction, so they can understand what freedoms are and take to the streets for that reason, not for chicken, oil or electricity”he also said.

He was speaking at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, where he began restoring a broken statue he brought from Cuba. The artist had obtained a visa on Friday to go to the United States, “a path that has emerged as the only way for him to regain his freedom at this time”explained relatives.

An exile under high political tension

Shortly after the dissident’s arrival, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Havana to release more than 700 political prisoners. “The international community must stop turning a blind eye to the human rights violations committed by the Cuban regime and join us in demanding an end to their repression”he added.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara was arrested on July 11, 2021 while trying to join the historic demonstrations during which thousands of Cubans demanded more freedoms and better living conditions. The artist was sentenced the following year to five years in prison for insulting the symbols of the homeland, contempt and disturbance of public order for the production of a previous artistic performance.

One of his relatives, the rapper Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo, sentenced during the same hearing to nine years in prison, is still detained. Amnesty International declared them both “prisoners of conscience” while the communist government accuses them of acting in the service of Washington to destabilize the country. In 2024, Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara received the Norwegian Rafto Prize, an award awarded each year to a personality who has acted for human rights.

On July 7, two days before the official end of his sentence, the plastic artist was taken from prison and transferred to a state security facility, where he remained for ten days before his application for an entry permit to the United States was approved.

Tensions with Cuba

This release comes against a backdrop of strong tensions between Cuba and the United States. At the beginning of July, during a debate before the United Nations Assembly on American sanctions, demanded by Cuba, American Ambassador Mike Waltz held up the portrait of the dissident to denounce the lack of freedom of expression on the island.

The departure of the artist also confirms the Cuban government’s strategy of getting rid of the most critical voices through exile, while between 700 and a thousand political prisoners are still imprisoned in the country, according to a count by the State Department and human rights organizations.

Among them are more than 250 people who took part in the demonstrations of July 11, 2021. In October, another dissident figure, José Daniel Ferrer, 55, who was serving a prison sentence in Cuba, went into exile in the United States.

These departures further weaken Cuban dissidence, already weakened by repression and incapable of taking advantage of the population’s discontent in the face of the very serious economic and social crisis affecting the island of 9.6 million inhabitants.

In addition to the embargo, the country is subject to an oil blockade from Washington, which is disrupting its economic, energy and social activities. A battery of sanctions against companies has also dried up foreign exchange earnings. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, estimates that the island, located 150 kilometers from the coast of Florida, represents “an extraordinary threat” for the national security of the United States.