MADRID, Spain.- Cuban artist and political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was awarded the Rafto Human Rights Prize, advertisement This Thursday, the Rafto Foundation, based in Bergen, Norway, recognized Otero Alcántara “for his courageous opposition to authoritarianism through art” and demanded that the Cuban regime release him immediately.
The Rafto Foundation highlighted that Otero Alcántara leads a new generation of independent voices in Cuba, which use creative forms of resistance to challenge the authoritarian regime. “Cuba has long been one of the countries in the world where freedom of expression has the worst conditions,” the foundation stressed, emphasizing the harsh repression exercised by the Cuban authorities against the widespread protests in Havana on July 11, 2021 (11J). During these demonstrations, hundreds of activists, including Otero Alcántara, were arrested.
Otero Alcántara had previously been arrested on multiple occasions for his activism. The Rafto Prize jury’s verdict underlined that Otero Alcántara’s artistic activism has had a high personal cost. It also denounced that his art has been confiscated and destroyed by State Security agents.
The Rafto Foundation has awarded its annual prize since 1987, recognising defenders of human rights and democracy. The laureates include four people who later received the Nobel Peace Prize, including Aung San Suu Kyi, José Ramos-Horta, Kim Dae-jung and Shirin Ebadi. The prize, worth US$20,000, is named after Professor Thorolf Rafto, who dedicated his life to the defence of democracy and human rights.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is serving a five-year sentence in the maximum security prison in Guanajay. He was convicted in June 2022 for “insulting the symbols of the country,” “contempt,” and “public disorder.”
Since his imprisonment, Otero Alcántara has received widespread international recognition. In 2021, he was named by the magazine Time as one of the most influential people of the year, and in 2022, he was awarded the Prince Claus Impact Award for his artistic work and courage.
