Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara addressed the controversy generated on social media regarding a watch that he has been wearing since his arrival in Miami, dismantling it with an argument that is both simple and compelling: the item is inexpensive, costing around 30 dollars, and was given to him by someone who cares about him.
"The watch shows that they cannot distinguish a croquette from a hot dog, because anyone who knows a little about watches knows that this is a cheap watch; bought anywhere; that cost 30 pesos and was given to me by someone who cares about me," stated the co-founder of the San Isidro Movement in the interview given to Tania Costa for CiberCuba.
The controversy arose days after Otero Alcántara arrived in Miami on July 18, when critics on social media —some linked to the Cuban government— suggested that the watch was a luxury item incompatible with the image of an activist.
Otero himself acknowledged the irony of the situation. In his view, what started as a gesture of affection has turned into ammunition for the attack. "This comes from a place of love. And it has turned into a whole movie about the clock," he noted.
To illustrate the absurdity of the argument, he proposed a hypothetical scenario: "Let's say tomorrow Marco Rubio gives me a watch worth 40,000 dollars. And what will happen? That will make me stop fighting against the dictatorship in Cuba."
His response was emphatic: political commitment doesn’t depend on what one wears on their wrist. "Am I going to have to dress in rags, amidst tremendous hunger and need, to prove that I’m a person who can fight for the freedom of Cuba? Honestly, that’s a lie, brother. It’s carried here in the mind," he asserted.
Behind the joke, the activist identified a deeper issue: the notion that a dissident must live in misery to be genuine is, in his opinion, a direct legacy of communist egalitarianism. At this point, he referred to the "anthropological damage" that the dictatorship has inflicted on Cubans both on and off the island.
In the same interview, Otero did not hide his personal preferences. "I love to dress well," he added unapologetically.
In CiberCuba, the activist also announced his intention to auction the watch and devote the money entirely to Cuban political prisoners, with the expectation that it could reach 20,000 dollars at sale.
But Otero's central message pointed further than the object in dispute. He called to redirect the energy of the debate towards those who truly need it: the over a thousand political prisoners who remain in Cuban prisons, many of whom lack public visibility and are suffering conditions that he himself acknowledged he had not endured due to his international profile.
"If you focus right now on Luis Manuel, whether he's a bit chubby, or if he has a watch, all that does is waste time. Right now in Cuba, there are more than a thousand political prisoners," he warned.
The organization Prisoners Defenders documented 1,281 political prisoners in Cuba in May 2026, many of whom were detained following the protests of July 11, 2021, the same popular uprising for which Otero was arrested and later sentenced to five years in prison.
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