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The Cuban political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara undertook a daily fast of 12 hours this Thursday—from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.—which he will continue until next Tuesday.
According to the information shared on the artist's Facebook profile, this protest is happening while death threats against him from State Security officials are being reported from the Guanajay prison.
According to the testimony of Daniel Alfaro Frías, another political prisoner held in Guanajay, agents from Department 21 of State Security and the chief of prisons in the province, Javier Reboso, conducted an inspection in the cells on Friday, which resulted in a direct confrontation with Otero Alcántara.
During the review, the agents provoked the artist and co-founder of the San Isidro Movement. When Otero questioned the regime's military capability to repel an external attack, the officers responded with an explicit threat: "With one of those AKMs you mentioned, we come here, but we're going to kill you here," reported Martí Noticias.
Alfaro, who is the coordinator of the Opponents for a New Republic movement and sentenced to nine years in prison, was also threatened during the same inspection: "If the Americans come here to Cuba, the first thing they will do is kill us." The political prisoner Jorge Ayala was also threatened on that day.
According to the organization Cubalex, Alfaro also clearly warned about the situation: "Political prisoners today are in danger for their lives here in the Guanajay prison."
Otero Alcántara's hunger strike takes place amidst a series of legal arbitrarinesses.
In early March, the organization Cubalex filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that the artist would have already served his entire five-year sentence: he has spent four years and seven months in provisional detention since July 11, 2021, plus eight months for good behavior, which exceeds the imposed penalty.
The Provincial People's Court of Artemisa rejected the appeal on March 23, stating that it was not competent to rule on the matter.
In a statement, Cubalex described this ruling as legally contradictory: "The court claims that Luis Manuel is in 'provisional detention' while simultaneously serving a sentence. This is legally incompatible and demonstrates arbitrary action."
On that same day, the court refused to accept the appeal within the legal deadline, arguing that "an official was unavailable."
Their imprisonment constitutes illegal detention, according to human rights organizations.
Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, 2021, while trying to join the anti-government protests that shook all of Cuba that day, and he was sentenced in June 2022 to five years in prison for "outrage against national symbols."
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