His fellow dissidents say Otero Alcántara was shot for treatment against his will and thatthey haven’t heard from himother than through videos published by Cuba’s state-run media.
Cuban health officials said when he had been confessed, Otero Alcántara didn’t appear to have been deprived of water or food and on Tuesday said he is drinking and eating, raising the question of why he remains hospitalized and incommunicado.In one of the videos that was released, Otero Alcántara appears in great health, joking with a hospital administrator while affirming”I am likely to keep demanding my rights as an artist”Cuban health officials say Otero Alcántara is stillundergoing testing and is being treated willingly.While the Cuban government grapples with the financial impacts of this coronavirus and rougher US sanctions, Otero Alcántara and his little group of tech-savvy”artivists” are a source of frustration for officials around the communist-run island.In tweets and videos uploaded into social media, Otero Alcántara and other members of the San Isidro Movement have recorded their effort in real time against official censorship and the Cuban authorities and safety officials that frequently shadow their every movement.”We are linked,” is a regular refrain and hashtag within his messages, a reference to the recent arrival of mobile internetto the country, which has enabled many Cubans to circumvent state-run press and communicate directly with rest of the world and their fellow Cubans.
Some Cuban officials claim thatthe self-taught Otero Alcántara isn’t actually a performer, which speaks to his assertion that government bureaucrats shouldn’t decide what qualifies as art on the island.Sometimes Otero Alcántara has threatened to drive a wedge between the authorities and Cuban musicians, who lately have enjoyed a special status that enabled them to criticize the authorities, albeit indirectly, and legally earn hard currency by selling their own work to tourists and consumers overseas.In November, authorities arrested Otero Alcántara and fans during a hunger strike, alleging they had violated health restrictions set up to stop the spread of this pandemic.Within hours, several hundred Cuban artists and students staged a rare sit-in protest outside the Cuban Ministry of Culture and a few of the island’s most best known cultural figures voiced their support to Otero Alcántara and greater freedom of expression.
Cuban officials quickly released Otero Alcántara and maintained he was a part of a US”soft coup” against the island.”The series is very like people staged on other occasions by other mercenary bands and puppets in the support of the U.S. government,” a post stated in the Cuban communist party newspaper Granma about Otero Alcántara days after the protest. “The new series, hailing from Washington and Miami, is a part of plans for subversion against Cuba.”However, Otero Alcántara, an Afro-Cuban millennial who lives in a downtrodden area of Old Havana that tourists rarely venture into, doesn’t fit the traditional image of an anti-Castro militant fighting to return the island to the days before the revolution. And he is especially adept at leveraging the obstacles Cuban officials throw athim as a form of performance art that generates more attention because of his movement.While his activism, up to now, does not seem to be an existential threat to the Cuban authorities, it’s proved unnerving to officials. The video for the tune, which has become an anthem for anti-government immunity, has obtained five million views on YouTube.In April, when police surrounded his home, he put in an exhibition where he sat restrained with a garrote about his neck.After he accused State Security representatives of seizing his artwork, Otero Alcántara demanded $500,000 in compensation and said he had been, again, going on a hunger strike.”I will fight to the last breath because of my artistic freedom,” he wrote in a popular message. “In my body dies, I expect it will be a spark to the liberty of Cuba.”When Otero Alcántara had been taken to the hospital in May, doctors released a statement stating the activist”showed no signs of adultery,” trying to throw doubt on his own hunger strike, but said he would remain”under observation.” But save 1 video where he briefly speaks, he hasn’t been heard from and his fans say they’ve been blocked by police from seeing him in person.
As Cuban officials try to accommodate into Otero Alcántara’s new brand of activism, the government runs the risk of endangering potentially improved connections with the Biden government, which so much is moving gradually on participating with the island. “We’ve seen reports that he is in hospital and thathis state is stable. We urge the police to safeguard his well-being in this difficult moment.”Some Cuban artists assert that if greater liberty of expression were permitted, the tension with the state and artists would facilitate.”These little scandals will finish the day that they legalize protests,” famed singer Silvio Rodriguez, a long-time supporter of the Cuban revolution, according to his blog. “Licensed protests. Democratic socialism. Along with the authorities protecting people who exercise their rights,” he continued.But top Cuban officials warn thata harsher crackdown could be on the horizon.”Into the mercenary lumpen who make money off of everybody’s destiny, to people who request an invasion, to people who always offend with words and deeds,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a televised speech in April while accepting the strong post of head of the Cuban communist party,”know that the patience of these people has limitations”