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 Movimiento San Isidro. 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 so many Cuban activists, numerous detentions by the Cuban police and State Security. He recently made headlines following the hacking of the San Isidro Movement's Facebook account (August 2020) and the publication of intimate photos of the artist with the intent to tarnish his image, which has resulted in multiple displays of support from his followers.
In February 2020, Otero toured the city to highlight its structural deterioration and staged a performance aimed at drawing attention to the collapses, including 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.
In March of that same year, he was arrested while heading to a "kiss-in" in front of 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 Cuban's release after he had been imprisoned for over two weeks and faced the threat of a sentence of 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 within the revolution."
In 2019, Otero Alcántara was summoned by the State Security on the very day that the Kings of Spain began their official visit to the Island, and he was arrested on charges of "public disorder."
Alcántara has frequently been targeted by the Cuban state press, a group of artists who support the government, and by the president of the National Council of Plastic Arts, Norma Rodríguez Derivet.
