The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, issued an official statement this Saturday from the Department of State welcoming Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a Cuban artist and co-founder of the San Isidro Movement, who arrived in Miami after serving five years in prison imposed by the Cuban regime.
Rubio described the regime as "illegitimate" and stated that the only "crime" of the artist was refusing to remain silent and using his art to demand the basic freedoms that Cubans have been unable to exercise for almost seven decades.
"By daring to imagine a free Cuba, he was harassed, detained, and imprisoned time and again, but today he is in exile," wrote the Secretary of State in the statement.
In the text, Rubio also highlighted the role of the San Isidro Movement as "a beacon of hope for a generation of Cubans who refused to live under tyranny."
He also pointed out that the regime's fear of citizens speaking the truth about communism and repression was demonstrated by the imprisonment of Otero Alcántara.
In his statement, Rubio also demanded the immediate release of over 700 political prisoners detained by the regime and called on the international community to "stop turning a blind eye" to human rights violations in Cuba.
"The Trump administration remains committed to the pursuit of freedom for the Cuban people in the face of tyranny and in support of democracy, prosperity, and fundamental liberties," stated the Secretary of State.
Otero Alcántara, 38 years old, arrived at Miami International Airport on American Airlines flight AA2706 from Havana.
His individual humanitarian parole application before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was approved on Friday, just one day prior to his arrival, and it was the only mechanism available for Cubans since the Trump administration terminated the collective parole program in March 2025.
Her release was contingent upon a final abandonment of Cuba, which activists and family members characterized as a forced exile.
The release occurred after weeks of uncertainty. Although his five-year sentence officially expired on July 9, the regime kept him in an undisclosed location since July 7, when State Security agents took him out of the Guanajay prison without notifying his family or lawyers.
In light of this situation, Amnesty International reported his enforced disappearance and the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances activated Urgent Action AU No. 2357/2026.
Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, 2021, while trying to join the protests on 11J and was sentenced in June 2022 in a closed trial for "insulting national symbols," "disobedience," and "public disorder."
During his five years of imprisonment, he undertook more than 10 hunger and thirst strikes, which resulted in documented kidney damage.
The organization Prisoners Defenders documented a historic record of 1,306 political prisoners in Cuba in early July, a figure significantly higher than the one mentioned by Rubio, highlighting the extent of the repression that the regime maintains over the island.
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