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The Estudio Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara launched the international campaign "A photo with Luisma", a call for people around the world to share on social media photographs they have taken with the artist and Cuban political prisoner, as a means of pressure to demand his unconditional release.
The initiative arises days after it was confirmed that Otero Alcántara ended his most recent hunger strike on April 6 which lasted eight days at the maximum-security prison in Guanajay, in the province of Artemisa.
The campaign was launched simultaneously from Miami and Madrid, coordinated by Yanelys Núñez Leyva and Claudia Genlui Hidalgo, historic collaborators of the artist and the San Isidro Movement.
Anyone who has a photograph with Otero Alcántara—whether it's a casual encounter, an exhibition, or a simple portrait—is invited to share it on their social media with the date and location it was taken, using the hashtags #UnaFotoConLuisma and #FreeLuisma.
The objective, according to the statement from the Studio, is "to create a visual archive with these images and to highlight the injustice that the regime has committed against him."
The hunger strike that preceded the launch of the campaign was motivated by direct threats from agents of Department 21 of State Security, who last March told him during a prison inspection: "We're going to kill you here".
Otero Alcántara also feared that his sentence would be illegally extended beyond the five years originally imposed.
The organization Cubalex has argued that, when adding the time served in provisional detention and the reductions for good behavior, the artist's sentence is already fulfilled, which makes his current detention illegal.
On March 23, the Provincial People's Court of Artemisa rejected a habeas corpus petition presented by Cubalex to demand his immediate release. Otero Alcántara was also not included in the presidential pardon announced by the regime recently.
The artist was arrested on July 11, 2021, while attempting to join the historic protests of that day, and was sentenced in June 2022 to five years in prison for disrespecting national symbols, contempt, and public disorder.
Despite the confinement, he has continued to create: from Guanajay, he has developed series of drawings such as Clowns, the Charcoal Portrait of Schrödinger's Cat, and the performance Maferefun.
His case has generated a broad international response. The UN declared his detention arbitrary in 2022, Amnesty International recognizes him as a prisoner of conscience, and more than 300 cultural figures have demanded his release.
On July 11, Otero Alcántara will have been imprisoned for five years, a date that the Studio highlights as urgent for maintaining pressure: "This support not only helps to exert pressure on the regime, but it also provides great assistance to someone who is in prison for political reasons."
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