By Ayose Naranjo
HAVANA, July 17 (Reuters) - Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is expected to travel to the United States in the coming days after completing a five-year prison sentence, according to a message posted by his family on Facebook.
A U.S. embassy official in Havana confirmed that Otero Alcántara had been granted humanitarian parole and said the embassy was working to support his travel as soon as possible.
Otero Alcántara, 38, co-founder of the opposition San Isidro Movement,
was detained on July 11, 2021, amidst the largest anti-government protests seen in Cuba in decades. He was convicted of offenses including desecration of national symbols, contempt and public disorder, and spent five years in the Guanajay prison near Havana.
Cuban authorities had previously offered the artist the option of leaving the country in exchange for his release, an alternative Otero Alcántara repeatedly rejected. However, in a 2024 interview from prison with El País, he acknowledged that he was reconsidering exile.
"I never thought about leaving, but the regime argues there is no option for me to walk Cuba's streets because of the danger they have made people believe I represent," he told the Spanish newspaper.
The cases of Otero Alcántara and rapper Maykel Castillo, known as "Osorbo," who is serving an eight-year prison sentence, have been a recurring source of diplomatic tension between Washington and Havana.
Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz criticized Cuba's human rights record during an address at the U.N. General Assembly and displayed images and names of political prisoners, including Otero Alcántara.
The news of Otero's imminent departure from Cuba comes days after his supporters filed a habeas corpus petition with Havana's Provincial People's Court on July 13 on behalf of the artist.
Anamely Ramos, an activist and close friend of the artist who lives in the United States, said in a Facebook post that Otero Alcántara had spent several days at an undisclosed location in Cuban state custody after completing his five-year sentence and leaving Guanajay prison.
Cuban authorities didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Otero’s departure. The Cuban government maintains that those imprisoned following the July 11, 2021, protests had committed crimes, such as arson or public disorder, and that they were not imprisoned for their political activism.
In 2021, following his arrest, Time magazine included him on its list of the world's 100 most influential people.
(Reporting by Ayose Naranjo in Havana; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
