{"id":771797,"date":"2026-07-19T09:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T09:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/771797\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T09:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T09:19:10","slug":"cuban-dissident-artist-arrives-in-us-after-five-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/771797\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuban dissident artist arrives in US after five years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuban dissident<\/a> artist Luis Manuel Otero Alc\u00e1ntara arrived in the United States on \u200bSaturday after completing a five-year prison sentence on the communist-run island<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Otero Alc\u00e1ntara, co-founder of \u200cCuba\u2019s opposition San Isidro Movement, was welcomed in Miami by a group of singing supporters and visited the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside the church to journalists and members of the \u200bCuban community, he thanked the U.S. and the European Union and reiterated calls \u200bfor a change of government<\/a> in Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the dictatorship has to \u2060end, and the Castro dynasty has to end, as well,\u201d Otero Alc\u00e1ntara said. \u201cBecause as \u200blong as there is a Castro in power, there will be corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responsibility for rebuilding the \u200bcountry lies with Cubans themselves, he said. \u201cCuba\u2019s future depends on us, the Cuban people,\u201d Otero Alc\u00e1ntara said.<\/p>\n

Otero Alc\u00e1ntara, 38, was detained by Cuban authorities in 2021 amidst the largest anti-government protests seen in Cuba \u200bin decades. He was convicted of offenses including desecration of national symbols, contempt and public \u200bdisorder, and spent five years in the Guanajay prison near Havana.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> announced \u200cOtero \u2060Alc\u00e1ntara\u2019s arrival in a statement earlier without providing details of his whereabouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cuban government\u2019s brutal crackdown against its own people five years ago is yet another reminder of the unique misery and evil that is innate to the communist system,\u201d Rubio said, urging the \u200brelease of all political \u200bprisoners in Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtero Alc\u00e1ntara\u2019s \u2060only \u2018crime\u2019 was refusing to stay silent and using his art to demand the basic freedoms everyday Cubans have been denied for almost \u200bseven decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

A U.S. Embassy official in Havana on Friday said Otero Alc\u00e1ntara \u200bhad been \u2060granted humanitarian parole.<\/p>\n

Cuban authorities had previously offered him the option of leaving the country in exchange for an early release, an alternative Otero Alc\u00e1ntara repeatedly rejected.<\/p>\n

The cases of Otero Alc\u00e1ntara and \u2060rapper \u200bMaykel Castillo, known as \u201cOsorbo,\u201d who is serving an eight-year \u200bprison sentence, have been a recurring source of diplomatic tension between Washington and Havana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alc\u00e1ntara arrived in the United States on \u200bSaturday after completing a five-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-771797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}