The Cuban artist and opposition figure Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara stated this Saturday that he "had to be honest" during an interview granted to journalist Tania Costa for CiberCuba, in which he reflects on the decisions he has made throughout his career, his stance towards the Cuban regime, and the personal consequences of maintaining his convictions.
Just a few days after being released and exiled from Cuba, his statements are part of a conversation where he discusses his release, his forced departure, the criticisms received, the horror of the prisons he leaves behind, and the situation of his friend and member of the San Isidro Movement Maykel Castillo.
Otero Alcántara explained that he could not present a false or exaggerated version of what he experienced in prison in order to receive applause, gain acceptance, or conform to a specific narrative.
“I have to be honest, I cannot arrive at a place being dishonest, because then what kind of Cuba am I building? A Cuba that suits me?” he expressed during the conversation.
The founder of the Movimiento San Isidro acknowledged that it would have been easier to simply state that the dictatorship had kept him hostage and to repeat a narrative that, he said, many people expected from him. However, he maintained that doing so would have meant being untruthful about his personal experience.
"The easiest thing would have been to respond: 'The dictatorship had me kidnapped,' all this story, that whole narrative we know is what people expected, what works and would have received applause from everyone. But I wasn't going to be honest, I wasn't going to be honest about what happened to me," he pointed out.
The artist clarified that his description of the conditions he faced is not intended to deny or minimize the experiences of other political prisoners and opponents within Cuban prisons.
He indicated that there are different forms of violence, various prison situations, and treatments that may vary from one inmate to another.
Otero believed that his high level of public visibility may have led the prison authorities to treat him differently than other opposition members.
For this reason, he emphasized that his experience should not be interpreted as a general representation of what happens in the prisons on the island.
"It is important to be smart and recognize that, at my level of visibility, or rather, that I am different, undeniably there is a different treatment for me, just as there is for other people," he stated.
He also rejected the notion that acknowledging this reality means "whitewashing" the Cuban regime.
The opposition figure argued that he cannot combat corruption and the lies of the regime by resorting to dishonesty himself.
“The dictatorship is not honest, the dictatorship is corrupt, the dictatorship is dishonest, the dictatorship tells lies about people. So I cannot be dishonest,” he stated during the interview.
The conversation also addressed the criticisms received by Otero Alcántara from some sectors of the exile community after his arrival in the United States.
The artist stated that he was not surprised by the reactions, as he knew from the moment he became a creator and activist that he would be surrounded by controversies.
As he explained, some people use those controversies as a joke, as a tool to gain followers and become trendy, while others may indeed be genuinely confused.
Otero compared those discussions to the process of muscle growth, which requires breaking its fibers to become stronger.
"For the muscle to grow, it has to break. You exercise, and the muscle tears, and it's during that tearing that new fibers are formed, leading to muscle growth. The same goes for the brain," he stated, while arguing that certain controversies can help open the mind and provoke reflection.
The artist also spoke about the physical and psychological difficulties he has faced after spending five years confined, surrounded by white and gray walls.
He said that one of the biggest challenges has been understanding and readapting to the outside environment, to distances, transportation, the abundance of information, and even the act of walking.
Otero assured that he emerged from prison with atrophied muscles and compared that physical deterioration to the effect that incarceration had on his mind. "At first, you start to walk again; it's one of the hardest things," he recounted.
In describing the contrast between prison and the outside world, he stated that he now sees "a lot of beautiful things," although he clarified that his perception is shaped by the years spent in an environment he deemed horrible.
He pointed out that even in prison, he found people, friendships, and positive actions, although that does not make the experience of incarceration a good one.
"The dialectic suggests that there are bad things that have good aspects. So, these are good things that have bad aspects," he summarized when referring to the contrast between life inside and outside of prison.
Otero Alcántara arrived in Miami on July 18, 2026, after serving a five-year sentence and being forced to leave Cuba under an exile condition.
Human rights organizations reported that Cuban authorities imposed permanent exile from the country as a condition for regaining their freedom.
The artist had officially completed his sentence on July 9, but he was taken from the maximum-security prison in Guanajay and remained under the control of State Security for several days, with his family and close friends unaware of his whereabouts.
He was later transferred to the United States and welcomed at Miami International Airport by activists, journalists, friends, and members of the Cuban exile community.
A story of repression
Otero Alcántara had been arrested on July 11, 2021, while trying to participate in the anti-government protests that took place that day in Cuba.
In 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison for the crimes of contempt, public disorder, and insult to national symbols. Amnesty International recognized him as a prisoner of conscience and stated that he should never have been incarcerated for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and artistic creation.
During the interview with Tania Costa, the activist also advocated for the significance of the San Isidro Movement and maintained that the Cuban authorities are aware of the mobilization capabilities achieved by the group and by figures such as the rapper and political prisoner Maykel «Osorbo» Castillo Pérez.
“They are drowning, they are throwing tantrums like drowning people” and they undeniably know the strength that the San Isidro Movement had and still has today,” Otero stated, referring to Castillo Pérez as his friend and brother and emphasizing his ability to mobilize others.
Otero Alcántara's statements reflect his intention to defend a personal narrative of his imprisonment without generalizing it or using it to dismiss the repression suffered by other opponents.
Its central argument is that the Cuba it aspires to build cannot be based on the same practices of lies, manipulation, and dishonesty that it attributes to the regime that imprisoned him and ultimately forced him to leave his country.
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