Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Removed from Guanajay Prison; Whereabouts Unknown

July 8, 2026

Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was removed on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, from the maximum-security Guanajay prison in Artemisa province amid a heavy security operation, according to multiple independent outlets. His whereabouts remain unknown.

According to his Facebook page and family sources, Otero Alcántara is not at his home in the El Cerro neighborhood of Havana. Neither prison authorities nor the Cuban government have disclosed his destination or the reasons for the transfer.

The move comes two days before July 9, 2026, the date on which, according to a Supreme Court ruling, his sentence was set to end. The human rights organization Cubalex said "everything indicates that authorities are seeking to keep him isolated while a humanitarian parole process in the United States is resolved." Activists recall that on previous occasions the artist has been held incommunicado during transfers or hospital admissions, making it difficult for his family and lawyers to determine his real situation.

Otero Alcántara, a founder and leading figure of the San Isidro Movement, was arrested on July 11, 2021, during Cuba's historic popular protests and sentenced in June 2022 to five years in prison on charges of contempt, insult to patriotic symbols, and public disorder. Amnesty International recognizes him as a prisoner of conscience, and in 2025 he received the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. In April 2026, he published a testimony from prison in The New York Times.