Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, co-founder of the San Isidro Movement, was released this Saturday after five years in prison, but on the condition of leaving Cuba permanently.
According to the announcement posted on his Facebook account, the artist has been held in a maximum-security prison "in an attempt to silence his civic and political leadership."
Weeks before, a humanitarian parole had been requested for him in the United States, presented as "the only way for him to regain his freedom at this time."
The process that led to his release was marked by several days during which his whereabouts were unknown, a situation reported by human rights organizations as a forced disappearance.
On July 7, 2026, two days before the official end of his sentence, Otero Alcántara was taken from the Guanajay prison by state agents and military forces and moved to an unknown location.
The authorities did not provide official information to their relatives and representatives, so their whereabouts remained unknown for several days.
Cubalex submitted a habeas corpus petition and reported that he was still being held illegally. The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances activated Urgent Action AU No. 2357/2026 and granted the Cuban State a deadline until July 25 to officially report on his whereabouts and situation.
This Friday, the
Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, 2021 while attempting to join the historic protests of 11J.
In 2022, he was , after a closed-door trial, for contempt, public disorder, and outrage against national symbols.
He did not receive any reductions for good behavior nor was he included in the release processes of January 2025 and April 2026.
Upon arriving in Miami, I had planned to visit the Ermita de la Caridad to leave an offering of gratitude. I brought with me a broken Virgin from Cuba.
"As many of us are. As Cuba is," the statement notes. "It is a gesture that invites us to gather the fragments, to restore what has been broken, and to believe that it is still possible to heal."
"Behind remain hundreds of political prisoners, and an entire people enduring perhaps the worst moment in their history. He does not forget it, and neither do we," concludes the statement from his circle.
In the coming days, he has several meetings planned with the press and hopes to gradually meet with exile organizations, friends, and others who wish to receive him.
According to the statement, "he arrives with the desire to know the physical space, but also the human and symbolic space of exile" and wants "to discuss the future of Cuba and how we can continue to imagine and build it together."
His release comes one week after the fifth anniversary of 11J, while many political prisoners remain incarcerated. Among them is the rapper Maykel Osorbo, a friend of Otero Alcántara and also a member of the San Isidro Movement, sentenced to nine years in prison.
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