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, 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. He has 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 intended to tarnish his image, which has led to multiple displays of support from his followers.
In February 2020, Otero traveled around the city to highlight the structural decay it was experiencing. He staged a performance designed to draw attention to the collapses and the tragic death of three girls who were killed when 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 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 film 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 more than two weeks and facing the threat of a sentence ranging from two to five years for the alleged crime of property damage. Regarding these calls for release, Diaz Canel asserted 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 detained on the charge of "public disorder."
Alcántara has been the target of attacks on many occasions from the official Cuban press, a sector of artists who support the government, and from the president of the National Council of Plastic Arts, Norma Rodríguez Derivet.
