Cuban authorities sentences dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara to 5 years in jail

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, the Cuban artist who was named an “icon” of 2021 by Time journal and for years has been a public thorn within the Cuban authorities’s paw, was sentenced to 5 years in jail on Friday (24 June) for the crime of “insulting nationwide symbols”. Alcántara’s good friend and collaborator Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo, who penned the opposition anthem Patria Y Vida—which gained the Latin Grammy Award for tune of the 12 months in 2021—obtained the identical sentence.

Alcántara has in the previous couple of years turn into an emblem for the artists and intellectuals who oppose the Cuban authorities’s distorted model of creative freedom. As one of many founders of the San Isidro motion, he helped deliver injustices in opposition to artists by the Cuban authorities to the worldwide stage. Human rights organisations and the USA authorities have referred to as for Alcántara’s launch since he was detained on 11 July 2021 after he posted a video to social media saying he deliberate to affix the protests which that day swept the nation. As of 26 Could, greater than 700 individuals arrested in the course of the protests that day stay in custody, in response to Human Rights Watch. In August 2021 he was named a “prisoner of consciousness” by Amnesty Worldwide.

“The worst factor in regards to the legal guidelines in Cuba is that they’re conceived by these in energy for use in a discretionary method,” says Julio Llopiz Casal, a Cuban artist concerned within the island’s opposition motion. “The nationwide symbols legislation will not be designed to control the usage of the Cuban flag, for instance, however somewhat to have an argument to criminally prosecute somebody like Luis Manuel, as a result of he was somebody who would certainly use his creative work to protest the truth that these in energy use the legislation as emotional blackmail with felony penalties.”

In line with the Related Press, the Cuban authorities mentioned it was “merely making use of the legislation as it will to anybody”.