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The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) activated an Urgent Action this Thursday in favor of the artist and human rights defender Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, following a request submitted by Cubalex to the international body.
The action has been recorded under File AU No. 2357/2026 and demands the Cuban regime to take immediate measures for search and protection.
The triggering event was the forced transfer of Otero Alcántara from the Maximum Security Prison in Guanajay, in the province of Artemisa, which occurred on Tuesday, July 7, between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM, when State Security agents and military forces took him out of the prison without informing his family about his destination.
The date of the transfer is particularly significant: her five-year sentence officially expired this Thursday, July 9, as confirmed by the People's Supreme Court of Cuba.
Since then, no one from his circle has been able to see or speak with him. He did not appear at his home in El Cerro, nor in the San Isidro neighborhood, nor with close acquaintances. His aunt was informed that they would take him to see her after the transfer, but that never happened.
The activist Anamely Ramos managed to speak briefly with him this Thursday, though under unspecified conditions. However, the situation remains one of extreme uncertainty: "Until we have firsthand news, we consider him missing," declared fellow activist Yanelys Núñez.
The CED set July 25, 2026 as the deadline for the Cuban government to submit an official report.
The demands of the UN body are specific: to immediately report the exact location and detention center of the artist; to ensure that their relatives have access to information regarding their legal situation, health status, and transfer details; to allow immediate communication and visits from family members and lawyers of their choice; and to ensure that their detention occurs only in officially recognized centers.
The Committee expressed deep concern upon recalling that Otero Alcántara was already a victim of forced disappearance in July 2021, an incident documented as AU 1208/2021, warning that the current concealment violates international standards.
Cubalex also filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that the artist's detention is illegal since he has served his sentence, but the regime has not provided any official information on the matter.
The case has reached an unprecedented international dimension. The ambassador of the United States to the UN, Mike Waltz, displayed a photograph of Otero Alcántara on Tuesday, July 7, during a session in front of the Cuban delegation, denouncing that his only crime was being an artist. Amnesty International, which declared him a prisoner of conscience since May 2, 2021, demands his immediate release.
Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, 2021, during the historic protests of 11J and sentenced in June 2022 to five years in prison on charges of "outrage to the symbols of the homeland," "contempt," and "public disorder."
On April 7, 2026, the Supreme People's Court rejected the habeas corpus petitions seeking his early release, arguing that he posed a "social danger," and also excluded him from the presidential pardon for that month.
Analysts and activists have warned that the regime could send him directly into forced exile through a swift operation to José Martí Airport in Havana, although his whereabouts remain unknown while the world awaits a response from the Cuban government before the deadline set by the UN.
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