He political prisoner and Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara suspended the hunger strike and thirst in the Guanajay prison, after eight days of protest against his unjust imprisonment.
“Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara called this afternoon, February 9, to inform us that for health reasons he had decided to suspend the hunger and thirst strike that had begun on February 1,” he reported in Facebook the activist Claudia Genlui Hidalgo.
The art curator also recalled that this was the fifth strike that the political prisoner took on "as an exercise of protest and act of desperation in the face of the arbitrariness, blackmail and limitations with which the Cuban State Security tries to torture him."
Likewise, he noted that "Luis has been in the Guanajay Maximum Security Prison for more than a year and a half, sentenced for an unjust conviction."
“The threats from the regime have been constant; on repeated occasions he has been informed that he will not leave prison nor will he be treated like a common prisoner. As if the simple fact of thinking and being consistent with his ideas of freedom condemned him eternally,” said Genlui Hidalgo.
He also reported that Luis Manuel has a situation inside the prison “more rigorous and unfair, even, than the treatment given to a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment.”
He also reiterated that the artist Luis is exhausted, although “his mind and body try to resist.”
“Beyond the anger and helplessness in the face of the absurdity that he is experiencing, he tries to understand that it is important to stay alive, because this is not over. Cuba will be free and he will be there to see it,” the activist concludes in her publication.
This Tuesday it was known that Otero Alcántara had declared a hunger and thirst strike since the beginning of February in prison where he is serving a five-year sentence for his rebellious stance against the regime.
Also, this last week, the Freedom House organization included the visual artist and the rapper Maykel "Osorbo" Castillo Pérez in the "Freedom for All" project, an initiative aimed at helping free political prisoners and rejecting the imprisonment of activists as a tool of repression.
"These people represent only a fraction of the many defenders of democracy and human rights around the world who endure similar circumstances," stated the organization, which included other names in the initiative.
The recognition of their cases by Freedom House makes them visible and draws the attention of the international community, in order to pressure the Cuban authorities to release them, along with the hundreds of political prisoners who remain held.
In December, Otero Alcántara won the Prince Claus Impact Award, from the Netherlands. At that moment he sent a voice message from prison thanking him for the important recognition in his artistic career.
"It's a Cuban independent art award, to resistance. Right now I'm in prison for my free art, for saying what I think, for wanting to contribute to a better society, both Cuban and global," said Otero.
International Amnesty considers this Cuban artist as a political prisoner. The leader of the San Isidro Movement was arrested on July 11, 2021, after calling on other Cubans to join the historic demonstrations in Havana.
The artist was sentenced to five years in prison for the alleged crimes of insulting the symbols of the country, contempt and public disorder. During his imprisonment he has suffered different ailments, the most recent were cramps in the hands and feet.
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