The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, imprisoned in the maximum security prison in Guanajay and without trial since he was arrested eight months ago, has left the hunger strike that he carried out for more than two months and is weak.
From now on, assured the curator Claudia Genlui, who made public the news about the artist this Wednesday on your Facebook wallthe leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) will change his “strategy” and accept prison visits, phone calls and supplies from abroad, something he had renounced in protest at his unjust imprisonment.
This change, says Genlui, with a source in the activist’s lawyer, who was able to visit him after waiting a four-hour waiting room, “does not mean that he changes his position regarding other things: he does not leave the country because any agent of the Cuban State wants him , but when he decides; he is willing to stand trial and accept the consequences; he continues to plead not guilty and supports all the people who have left Cuba for some reason”.
“Although 16 days have passed since he left the hunger strike, he is still in the ‘corridor 25’ of those punished, of those who do not have the right to calls”
“Although 16 days have passed since he left the hunger strike, he is still in the ‘corridor 25’ of those punished, of those who do not have the right to calls,” continues the curator. “Luis has lost a lot of weight, he no longer goes out to sunbathe because his strength is limited and he is weak. Next Thursday, if Luis Manuel does not communicate with his relatives, the lawyer will file an appeal with the prosecutor to demand that he be transferred with the rest of the prison population”.
Otero Alcántara went on a hunger strike for the second time since he was in Guanajay, on January 18, after being held incommunicado. In solidarity with the artist, activists and opponents from inside and outside the Island published a text every day with the hasgtag #DiarioParaLuisma.
Similarly, the United States government repeatedly called for his immediate release and warned that he is being held in a maximum security prison “without formal charges or a trial date.”
The artist has been in jail since July 11, when he was arrested before being able to join the spontaneous anti-government protests, and is accused of public disorder, incitement to commit a crime and contempt.
These crimes were charged to him for events in April 2021, when he attended a birthday party in which the residents of the neighborhood where he resides ended up singing Patria y Vida. Although he was free pending trial, he was arrested and jailed on the day of protests across the country.
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