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Luis Manuel Otero, Another Cuban Forced into Exile

HAVANA TIMES – He fought for several years to avoid being broken, but in the end Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, the most prominent political prisoner still behind bars in Cuba, had to choose the path of exile, where he promises to continue his struggle for the freedom of his homeland.

He arrived in Miami on the afternoon of Saturday, July 18, after the US government granted him humanitarian parole and after serving a five-year prison sentence for participating in the mass protests of July 11, 2021, although he was arrested before he could join the demonstrations.

Throughout all those years in the maximum-security prison in Guanajay (about 50 kilometers southwest of Havana), he was a symbol of resistance and, whenever he could, continued to use his art, his voice, and his courage to challenge a rigid and authoritarian political system.

He was actually released on July 7, but Cuban authorities kept him detained at an undisclosed location, and family members and activists reported him missing, until it emerged that he would be leaving the country in exile.

Upon arriving in Miami, he said that he had been held in a house near Guanabo, under the custody of State Security.

According to activist Anamely Ramos, also a member of the San Isidro Movement, since 2023 the authorities had left exile as his only alternative for regaining his freedom and continuing his work as an artist and activist. About 20 days before completing his sentence, they warned him that this was the only path he could take, or he would be sent back to a........

© Havana Times