Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a Cuban independent activist and artist born in Cuba on December 2, 1987. Known for his performances that denounce government management and policies, he is a leader and member of the San Isidro Movement. This movement, formed by 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 arrests by the Cuban police and State Security. Recently, he has made headlines following the hacking of the Facebook account of the San Isidro Movement (August 2020) and the publication of intimate photos of the artist intended to tarnish his image, which has led to multiple displays of support from his followers.
In February 2020, Otero traveled through the city to highlight the structural deterioration it faced, and he staged a performance aimed at drawing attention to the collapses, specifically the tragic death of three girls after a balcony fell on them in the Jesús María neighborhood of Old Havana. As a result of this action, Otero was arrested.
In March of that same year, he was detained while heading to a "kiss-in" outside the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television due to the censorship of a gay kiss in the film Love, Simon. On this occasion, dozens of artists (Silvio Rodríguez, Pedro Luis Ferrer, Carlos Varela, Athanai, Yotuel (Orishas), U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Michael G. Kozak, and Amnesty International, among others) joined the call for the release of the Cuban after being imprisoned for more than 2 weeks and facing the threat of a sentence of between two and five years in prison for the alleged crime of property damage. Regarding these calls for release, Diaz Canel stated that “Cuban artists must be part of the revolution."
In 2019, Otero Alcántara was summoned by State Security on the very day that the Kings of Spain began their official visit to the Island and was arrested on charges of "public disorder."
Alcántara has been the target of attacks on many occasions by the Cuban state-run press, a sector of artists who support the government, and by the president of the National Council of Plastic Arts, Norma Rodríguez Derivet.
