OAN Staff Addie Davis
11:08 AM – Sunday, July 19, 2026
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Cuban artist and dissident, touched down in Miami, Florida, after being released from prison in Cuba, reportedly on the condition he would leave the communist country.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who gave a statement on his arrival, framed Otero Alcántara’s five-year imprisonment as arbitrary and a suppression of free speech.
“Otero Alcántara’s only ‘crime’ was refusing to stay silent and using his art to demand the basic freedoms everyday Cubans have been denied for almost seven decades,” Rubio said on Saturday.
Otero Alcántara is the leader of the San Isidro Movment—formed by Cuban artists, journalists and academics—that campaigns for freedom of speech and democracy in the country that has long been under a communist regime.
“The San Isidro Movement, which he helped build, was a beacon of hope for a generation of Cubans who refused to live under tyranny. The regime’s fear of everyday Cubans speaking the truth of living under communism and constant repression was evidenced by their cowardice in imprisoning Otero Alcántara,” Rubio said.
“For daring to imagine a free Cuba, he was harassed, detained, and imprisoned time and again but today, he is in exile,” he continued.
During expansive anti-government protests in 2021, Otero Alcántara was arrested and held in prison for five years. According to a Facebook page managed by his friends and supporters, he was released on the condition that he departs from the island.
“Today, Luis wants to live again, resume his projects and recover the time that was taken away from him. He also wants to continue imagining and working towards the freedom of Cuba,” a Saturday post read, according to a translation.
The U.S. secretary of state focused not only on Otero Alcántara’s case, but also emphasized the large number of political prisoners in Cuba, stating that the administration of President Donald Trump stands beside the people of Cuba in their pursuit for freedom.
“The Trump Administration remains committed to the Cuban people’s pursuit of freedom from tyranny and in support of democracy, prosperity, and fundamental freedoms. We call for the immediate release of the more than 700 unjustly detained political prisoners held by the regime,” Rubio stated.
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