The Cuban regime's propaganda program Razones de Cuba published a video lasting just eight seconds this Saturday in which it labels the artist and political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, co-founder of the San Isidro Movement, as a "mercenary," on the very day he arrived in Miami after being exiled from Cuba.
The regime's spokesperson program states that the United States Embassy processed the artist's parole and "claims him personally," concluding: "It is not exile, it is relocation. He is not a victim, he is a mercenary. Cuba does not negotiate its sovereignty."
It is particularly cynical for the regime to now label Otero Alcántara as a "mercenary" when, two days before he was to complete his sentence, they took him out of the prison in Guanajay and kept his whereabouts hidden for 11 days, an action denounced by human rights organizations as a forced disappearance: a state kidnapping.
What makes the narrative of Razones de Cuba even more grotesque is that in the images that circulated of Otero's departure, an officer from MININT can clearly be seen escorting him, which fundamentally contradicts the story of a "voluntary relocation at the request of Washington."
The humanitarian parole was approved on Friday as the only available option for his release, and this Saturday Otero arrived in Miami on an American Airlines flight from Havana, with diplomatic escort.
The regime conditioned his release on permanent and irrevocable exile, prohibiting him from returning to Cuba.
The publication sparked a wave of criticism that highlights the central hypocrisy of the message: the regime itself had kept Otero in enforced disappearance for 11 days before his departure from the country.
Iliana Hernández was direct: "False at your request, because you didn't release him on July 9; you kept him imprisoned until today."
Amelia Calzadilla pointed out the most obvious contradiction: "And was the personal security service with the lieutenant colonel they assigned to him also at Washington's request?"
Leonela Toirac Duran pointed out another inconsistency: "And how did they find him? Because supposedly he was isolated and it was unknown where he was. So, in which prison did they find him...?"
Mariam Rodríguez summarized what many think about forced exile: "They have to exile him because his mere presence turns Havana upside down. They can't be more afraid of just one person."
Yoannis Perez put it bluntly in the comments: "With this, Razones de Cuba shows that it is a tool of manipulation by the Castros."
Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, 2021, while attempting to join the historic protests of 11J and was sentenced in June 2022 to five years in prison for "insulting the symbols of the homeland," "disobedience," and "public disorder."
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