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 detentions by the Cuban police and State Security. Recently, he made headlines following the hacking of the San Isidro Movement's Facebook account (August 2020) and the publication of intimate photos of the artist aimed at tarnishing his image, which has led to multiple displays of support from his followers.
In February 2020, Otero toured the city to denounce its structural deterioration and drew attention to the tragic deaths of three girls following the collapse of a balcony on them in the Jesús María neighborhood of Old Havana through a performance aimed at highlighting these incidents. As a result of this action, Otero was detained.
In March of that same year, he was arrested while heading to a "kiss-in" outside the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television due to the censorship of a gay kiss in the movie Love, Simon. On this occasion, dozens of artists (Silvio Rodríguez, Pedro Luis Ferrer, Carlos Varela, Athanai, Yotuel (Orishas), the 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 over two weeks and facing the threat of a sentence ranging from two to five years in prison for the alleged crime of damage to property. 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 King and Queen of Spain began their official visit to the Island, and he was arrested on charges of "public disorder."
Alcántara has been the target of attacks on many occasions from the official Cuban press, a group of artists who support the government, and by the president of the National Council of Plastic Arts, Norma Rodríguez Derivet.
