Sandro Castro, grandson of the dictator Fidel Castro and an influencer with more than 164,000 followers on Instagram, published an animated reel on Tuesday in which he deliberately and maliciously satirized Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, founder of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) and a recently exiled political prisoner in Miami.
The video, one minute and twelve seconds long, is part of the series of animated episodes featuring artificial intelligence that Sandro regularly publishes under his alter ego "Cristach," a superhero in a green and gold suit with subliminal messages that would likely earn him a stern reprimand from his grandfather.
The narrative begins with a depiction of the artist painting in the streets of the San Isidro neighborhood in Havana, when a horde of zombies suddenly breaks in and destroys his artwork —a direct evocation of the acts of repudiation and the raid that the MSI suffered in November 2020—.
Next, the character appears alone and dejected in a dark cell, but the scene shifts: the prison fills with thousands of paintings, and the artist paints with multiple arms, in an AI-generated image in the style of the goddess Kali, accompanied by the text "4,300 works of art created during five years of imprisonment."
The phrase is a direct mockery of Otero Alcántara's statements, who explained that he was allowed to paint in prison because, in his own words, “I was dying and they didn't want me dead.”
The climax of the reel occurs when the two superheroes —Cristach and a member of his band— break through the ceiling of the prison and fly the artist out of Cuba, suggesting a complicity between LMOA and their "saviors," characters from the elite of Castroism and heirs to the totalitarian power of the regime.
The final scene shows the three characters entering Café Versailles in Miami, where a sudden blackout causes all the artworks to vanish: a metaphor for the talent of Otero Alcántara fading away on U.S. soil.
The video deliberately exploits the controversy stirred up after the arrival of Otero Alcántara in Miami on July 19, when his good physical appearance sparked criticism and suspicion: some went as far as to accuse him of having received preferential treatment in prison or of being a Castro regime agent.
The Cuban regime itself labeled him a "mercenary" in a propaganda piece released following his deportation.
Otero Alcántara responded that the debate about his physique or his watch —which he said cost around 30 dollars and was a gift— was "a waste of time" in light of the existence of more than a thousand political prisoners in Cuba.
The boxer Yordenis Ugás came to the defense of the activist, warning that the regime likely calculated that image specifically to divide the exile community.
This reel fits into a well-documented pattern: just two weeks earlier, on July 13, Sandro Castro posted another animated video in which he portrayed journalists and influencers from exile as villains, including Mario Pentón and Alex Otaola.
Analysts and commentators have repeatedly pointed to the possible involvement of State Security behind his messages, although Sandro himself stated in an interview with CNN Español in March 2026 that he was summoned and questioned by that agency following his satirical videos.
The reel accumulated 28,187 views, 475 likes, and 74 comments in just a few hours, solidifying the impact of a piece that, under the guise of animated satire, delivers a message that directly supports the regime's narrative against one of the most internationally recognized Cuban activists.
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