Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a Cuban independent activist and artist born in Cuba on December 2, 1987. Known for his performances that denounce the government's management and policies, he is a leader and member of the San Isidro Movement. This movement, composed of a collective of artists and creators, aims to promote, protect, and defend civil and cultural rights in Cuba.
Otero has suffered, like many Cuban activists, numerous detentions by the Cuban police and State Security. He recently made headlines due to the hacking of the Facebook account of the San Isidro Movement (August 2020) and the publication of intimate photos of the artist with the intention of tarnishing his image, which has led to multiple displays of support from his followers.
In February 2020, Otero traveled through the city to denounce its deteriorating infrastructure and staged a performance aimed at drawing attention to the collapses and the tragic death of three girls after a balcony collapsed on them in the Jesús María neighborhood of Old Havana. As a result of this action, Otero was arrested.
En marzo de ese mismo año fue detenido cuando se dirigía a una "besada" frente al Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión por la censura de un beso gay en la película Love, Simón. En esta ocasión decenas de artistas (Silvio Rodríguez, Pedro Luis Ferrer, Carlos Varela, Athanai, Yotuel(Orishas), el subsecretario de Estado para Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental de EE.UU, Michael G. Kozak, y la Organización Amnistía Internacional, entre otros) se sumaron a la petición de liberación del cubano luego de ser encarcelado por más de 2 semanas y con la amenaza de recibir una condena de entre dos y cinco años de cárcel por el supuesto delito de daño a la propiedad. Al respecto de esas peticiones de liberación Diaz Canel aseguró que “ los artista cubanos deben estar dentro de la revolución"
In 2019, Otero Alcántara was summoned by State Security on the very day the Kings of Spain began their official visit to the Island, and he was detained under the accusation of "public disorder."
Alcántara has been the target on many occasions of attacks from the official Cuban press, a group of artists who support the government, and from the president of the National Council of Plastic Arts, Norma Rodríguez Derivet.
