Cuban dissident artist Otero Alcantara lands in US exile

Prominent Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara flew to exile on Saturday in the United States after serving a five-year sentence on the island, as Washington urged Havana to release more than 700 political prisoners.

Otero Alcantara, designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022 for insulting national symbols, contempt and disturbing the public order.

He landed in Miami, the capital of the Cuban diaspora, after a short flight from Havana, according to a video of Otero Alcantara at the airport that was shared with Agence France-Presse by his friend, activist Anamely Ramos.

Otero Alcantara, a self-taught performance artist, sculptor and painter, rose to prominence in 2020 as leader of the San Isidro protest movement of artists and intellectuals.

He was detained in July 2021 while leaving his home in Havana to join unprecedented mass protests.

“After five years of unjust imprisonment, Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara has finally been freed,” read a post on his social media account managed by his friends.