Cuban dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara goes into exile in US
One of Cuba's most prominent dissidents has gone into exile in the US, after leaving Cuba where he had served a five-year prison sentence. Luis
One of Cuba's most prominent dissidents has gone into exile in the US, after leaving Cuba where he had served a five-year prison sentence. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, 38, is the leader of the San Isidro Movement (SIM), a group of artists, journalists and intellectuals who have campaigned for freedom of speech and democracy in the communist country.
He was arrested in 2021 during Cuba's largest anti-government protests in decades and spent five years in the maximum-security Guanajay prison near Havana. His whereabouts have been unclear in recent days as Cuban authorities held him in an unknown location while the US approved a parole request. Emerging from the airport in Miami, the 38-year-old was greeted by supporters who sang the Cuban national anthem as he held up his forefinger and thumb in the shape of the letter L to represent '"Libertad" - meaning freedom, a recognised anti-government symbol.
"I believe the dictatorship has to end, and the Castro dynasty has to end, as well," Otero Alcántara later told journalists. "Because as long as there is a Castro in power, there will be corruption." Cuban authorities allege the SIM is funded by Washington and has been used to subvert the state, claims the movement denies.
Many members say they have been constantly targeted by the security forces, and some arbitrarily detained.
The BriefWire