Artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was on day eight of a hunger strike protesting what he said was a campaign of Cuban authorities harassment against him before dawn, health officials hauled him to a hospital hospital.His fellow dissidents state Otero Alcántara was shot for treatment against his will and they have not heard from him,other than through videos released by Cuba`s state-run media.
Cuban health officials said, if he was admitted, Otero Alcántara didn`t seem to have been deprived of food or water and on Tuesday said he is eating and drinking, raising the question of why he remains hospitalized and incommunicado.In one of the movies which was released, Otero Alcántara seems in great health, joking with a hospital secretary whilst affirming”that I am likely to keep demanding my rights as an artist.”Cuban health officials state Otero Alcántara is undergoing testing and has been treated voluntarily.While the Cuban government grapples with the financial impacts of the coronavirus and rougher US sanctions, Otero Alcántara and his small group of tech-savvy”artivists” are a source of frustration for officials on the communist-run island.Back in tweets and movies uploaded to societal media, Otero Alcántara along with other members of the San Isidro Movement have recorded their effort in real time against official censorship and the Cuban authorities and security officials which often shadow their every movement.”We are linked,” is a regular refrain and hashtag in his messages, a reference to the recent arrival of mobile internetto the nation, which has allowed many Cubans to circumvent state-run press and speak directly with rest of the world and their fellow Cubans.
Some Cuban officials claim the self-taught Otero Alcántara is not actually a performer, which speaks to his assertion that government bureaucrats should not determine what qualifies as art on the staircase.At times Otero Alcántara has threatened to drive a wedge between the authorities and Cuban artists, who lately have enjoyed a special status that allowed them to criticize the authorities, albeit indirectly, and legally make hard currency by selling their own work to tourists and consumers overseas.In November, authorities arrested Otero Alcántara and supporters during a hunger strike, alleging they had violated health restrictions set up to stop the spread of the pandemic.Within hours, several hundred Cuban artists and pupils staged a rare sit-in protest beyond the Cuban Ministry of Culture and some of the island`s most best-known cultural figures lent their support to Otero Alcántara and greater freedom of expression.
Cuban officials immediately released Otero Alcántara and maintained he was part of a US”soft coup” against the island.”The series is quite similar to those staged on other events by other mercenary groups and puppets in the service of the U.S. government,” a post stated in the Cuban communist party newspaper Granma roughly Otero Alcántara days following the demonstration. “The new series, hailing from Washington and Miami, is part of strategies for subversion against Cuba.”But Otero Alcántara, an Afro-Cuban millennial who lives in a downtrodden area of Old Havana that tourists rarely venture into, does not fit the traditional image of an anti-Castro militant fighting to reunite the island to the times prior to the revolution. And he is especially adept at leveraging the obstacles Cuban officials throw him as a form of performance art that generates more attention for his movement.While his activism, so far, does not seem to be an existential threat to the Cuban authorities, it has proved unnerving to officials.Otero Alcántara appeared in a music video for its song”Patria y Vida” or”Fatherland and Life,” a drama on the revolutionary slogan”Fatherland or Death,” which is how Fidel Castro finished his speeches. The video for the song, which has become an anthem for anti-government resistance, has received five million views on YouTube.Back in April, when police surrounded his house, he put on an exhibition at which he sat controlled with a garotte about his neck.After he accused State Security agents of seizing his art, Otero Alcántara demanded $500,000 in settlement and said he was, again, going on a hunger strike.”I will fight to the last breath for my artistic freedom,” he wrote in a widely seen message. “If my body dies, I expect it`s going to be a spark to the liberty of Cuba.”When Otero Alcántara was taken to the hospital in May, physicians released a statement stating the activist”showed no signs of malnutrition,” attempting to throw doubt on his own hunger strike, but said he`d remain”under observation.”Cuban state-run media have published regular updates on Otero Alcántara, a rare acknowledgement of anti-government dissent. But save 1 video where he accidentally speaks, he has not been heard from and his supporters say they`ve been blocked by police from watching him in person.
As Cuban officials try to accommodate to Otero Alcántara`s new brand of activism, the government runs the risk of threatening potentially enhanced relations with the Biden government, which so much is moving gradually on engaging with the island. “We have seen reports that he is in hospital and his state is steady. We urge the police to safeguard his well-being in this challenging moment.”Some Cuban artists argue that if greater liberty of expression were permitted, the tension with the musicians and state would ease. “Authorized protests. Democratic socialism. Along with the authorities protecting those who exercise their faith,” he continued.But top Cuban officials warn a harsher crackdown may be on the horizon.”To the mercenary lumpen who make money from everybody`s destiny, to those who request an invasion, to those who continuously violate deeds and words,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a televised speech in April while taking the strong post of head of the Cuban communist party,”know that the patience of these people has limitations.”