The Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco revealed in an interview details of a death threat made by an agent of the Cuban State Security against political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara during an inspection at the maximum security prison in Guanajay, in Artemisa.
According to Fusco, on March 28, an agent from Department 21 of State Security had an aggressive exchange with Otero and the prison chief, and at one point explicitly told him that if a U.S. invasion came, "he would be killed".
"He was very upset by the comment. Obviously, I would also be very upset," stated Fusco, who nevertheless expressed his doubts about the regime's true intention to carry out that threat.
"I sincerely doubt that the Cuban state will kill him now because that would become an even more serious problem, like what happened with [Orlando] Zapata Tamayo and others who have died in prison," said the artist, invoking the case of the political prisoner who died in 2010 after 86 days of hunger strike, whose death caused an international political crisis for the regime.
The threat prompted an immediate response from Otero: the artist began a partial fast that escalated to a total hunger strike on March 30 and lasted for eight days, until April 6, 2026.
This threat to Otero Alcántara comes two months before his five-year sentence ends on July 9, 2026.
The People's Supreme Court rejected in April the habeas corpus appeal presented by Cubalex, which requested his early release, confirming that he must serve the full sentence.
Fusco acknowledged the total uncertainty surrounding the artist's future following his eventual release. "I hope the Cuban government allows him to leave the country, but that is still unclear. I hope the United States permits him to enter the country, but at the moment, Cubans do not have the right to entry. I hope other countries offer him assistance, but nothing is clear right now."
Fusco also took the opportunity during the interview to criticize the approach of some international media, which, in his view, tends to attribute Cuba's economic and social disaster exclusively to Trump's policies and the embargo.
"Although it is true that the restrictions imposed recently have worsened the situation, we cannot reduce Cuba's economic problem to the embargo or to what President Trump does," he noted.
For the artist, the primary responsibility lies with the regime itself: "That disaster was created by the Cuban state itself, by the decisions it has made, by the dysfunction of the economic system, by the lack of investment in the public sector for decades. Trying to explain all this through what Trump has done, for me, distorts reality."
Fusco is currently organizing the exhibition "States of Confinement. The Relational Art of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara," which will open on May 28, 2026, at the Galería Metropolitana in Mexico City, as part of her efforts to internationally showcase the work of the imprisoned artist.
Filed under: