The artist and political prisoner has been missing for ten days after being removed from Guanajay prison by State Security.
14ymedio, Madrid, July 17, 2026 — The U.S. has approved the parole requested by Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara so that he may enter the country. A U.S. Embassy official in Havana confirmed the news to 14ymedio after the artist’s relatives and friends, who say his whereabouts have been unknown for the past ten days, announced it Friday through social media accounts in his name.
“If the Cuban regime allows it, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara will travel to Miami on Saturday and enter the United States under humanitarian parole or Significant Public Benefit parole,” the consular source said.
The social media post from the artist’s relatives and friends states that the approval came “after several weeks of constant efforts.” “Since early 2023, Luis accepted exile as the only way to continue his work as an artist and activist after enduring all the repression directed against him,” the post says. His friends also reaffirm that his release is being granted only in exchange for exile: “State Security has left him no other option for being released from prison.”
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously to 14ymedio, said that by keeping Otero Alcántara confined after he had completed his sentence while awaiting parole to travel to the United States, the Havana regime intended to “put the ball in Washington’s court and make it appear that the artist remained imprisoned because of delays by the Trump administration.”
On July 7, Otero Alcántara’s relatives reported that the artist had been removed from the maximum-security prison in Guanajay, Artemisa Province, where he was serving a sentence with only two days remaining. Days later, the artist managed to contact Anamely Ramos.
“If the Cuban regime allows it, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara will travel to Miami on Saturday and enter the U.S. under humanitarian parole or Significant Public Benefit parole”
According to the activist and art historian’s own social media account, Otero Alcántara called her “from a State Security cellphone, an unknown number, and the call was on speakerphone.” When she asked how he was doing, the artist replied “fine,” Ramos said, “in the tone we use to indicate that we’re as well as possible under the circumstances.” He was unable to answer the second question she asked: “Where are you?”
The activist explained at the time that the parole application for Otero Alcántara to travel to the U.S. was still “being processed” and that the artist would remain “in that unknown location until it is resolved.”
Today’s post recalls: “Luis should have been free since July 9, when his unjust five-year sentence expired, yet he remains in the hands of the political police at a location we cannot identify.” It adds, suggesting the possibility of an imminent trip to the United States: “As soon as we have any clear information about his possible departure from Cuba, we will share it through this channel.”
Otero Alcántara was arrested on 11 July 2021, while attempting to join the anti-government protests that broke out that day in numerous Cuban cities. In 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison on charges including insulting national symbols, contempt, and public disorder. His case, along with that of rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo, became one of the most prominent symbols of the repression that followed the 11 July protests.
Three days after Otero Alcántara’s release from prison, Castillo himself was transferred to Guanajay prison from Kilo 8 prison in Pinar del Río, where he had been serving his own nine-year sentence.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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