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Mike Hammer, acting chief of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, visited the independent art gallery "Lavandería" in Havana on Friday and took the opportunity to reiterate the call for the release of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo, whom he described as unjustly imprisoned artists.
"It was a pleasure to visit artists Ilse Antón Rodríguez and Rafael Pérez Alonso at their gallery 'Lavandería.' We discussed the important role of the independent artistic community in a country's life and how vital freedom of expression and thought is," the embassy itself posted on its X account.
In the same message, the diplomatic mission reiterated "the call for the release of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo, artists unjustly imprisoned. #MSI #Todos".
The gallery Lavandería, located in the Playa municipality of Havana and managed by artists Ilse Antón Rodríguez and Rafael Pérez Alonso, is one of the independent art spaces that continue to thrive on the island despite the regime's restrictions on unofficial culture. Hammer has also pointed out on other occasions that Cuba will soon achieve the freedom it hasn't had in 67 years.
The visit of Hammer comes at a time of particular tension for Cuban political prisoners. On March 28, State Security agents threatened Otero Alcántara with death along with other detainees such as Daniel Alfaro Frías and Jorge Ayala.
Just four days earlier, on March 24, the Provincial People's Court of Artemisa had rejected a habeas corpus petition filed by Cubalex to secure his immediate release.
This situation is part of a broader context of pardons that explicitly exclude those convicted of crimes against security, leaving many political prisoners in Cuba without legal recourse.
Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement, has been held in the maximum-security prison of Guanajay in Artemisa since July 2021, when he was arrested while attempting to join the historic protests of 11J.
In June 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison for outrage against national symbols, contempt, and public disorder. In December 2025, he began a voluntary hunger strike in prison as a protest against his imprisonment and the situation of human rights in Cuba.
The United States Embassy in Cuba had previously joined a joint call with Freedom House for the release of Otero Alcántara, highlighting the ongoing international pressure on the Cuban regime in this case.
Maykel Osorbo, whose full name is Maykel Castillo Pérez, is serving a sentence of nine years in Kilo 5 and a Half prison, in Pinar del Río.
He was arrested in May 2021 and sentenced in June 2022 for assault, resisting arrest, contempt, public disorder, and defamation. His sentence does not conclude until 2030. Osorbo is a co-author of the song "Patria y Vida."
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