{"id":344981,"date":"2026-07-19T03:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/344981\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T03:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:48:09","slug":"prominent-cuban-activist-luis-manuel-otero-alcantara-arrives-in-miami-after-prison-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/344981\/","title":{"rendered":"Prominent Cuban activist Luis Manuel Otero Alc\u00e1ntara arrives in Miami after prison release"},"content":{"rendered":"

A prominent Cuban<\/a> artist and political prisoner arrived in Miami, on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on the condition that he leave his country.<\/p>\n

Video posted to Facebook captured the moment Luis Manuel Otero Alc\u00e1ntara walked out of the international arrivals doors at Miami International Airport<\/a>. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words “Patria y Vida” \u2014 “Homeland and Life” \u2014 the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba’s political opposition against repression.<\/p>\n

The United States granted him parole into the country earlier this week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.<\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement \u2014 named for the neighborhood where Alc\u00e1ntara lived.<\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara was arrested during the nationwide protests that swept Cuba on July 11, 2021. He was convicted of public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.<\/p>\n

Draped in a Cuban flag, Alc\u00e1ntara told the crowd his first words in English: “Super bien! Very good. Very good!”<\/p>\n

He said the joy of being free is what he wants for every Cuban still on the island.<\/p>\n

“I wants to tell the people of Cuba you can do it. I went to prison, and I didn’t think in a million years it was a possibility,” Alc\u00e1ntara said in Spanish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His message to those still in Cuba was direct.<\/p>\n

“The message is you have to keep fighting. You have to keep fighting for the liberty,” he said in Spanish.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez posted a response on X following Alc\u00e1ntara’s release.<\/p>\n

“Luis Manuel is not a criminal. He is a Cuban patriot whose only fault was refusing to be silenced,” Gimenez said in part.<\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara’s arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, an allegation the Cuban government rejected.<\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released last week. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.<\/p>\n

The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.<\/p>\n

Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were not sure of his location, or if he was truly free.<\/p>\n

His said his first stop on American soil would be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity to make an offering.<\/p>\n

Other political prisoners remained imprisoned, including his fellow artist Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo P\u00e9rez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alc\u00e1ntara’s release would prompt insistence that P\u00e9rez also be set free.<\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.<\/p>\n

\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n

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