Prominent Cuban dissident to go into exile in the US

By Patrick Oppmann, CNN

(CNN) — A prominent Cuban dissident will go into exile in the US on Saturday after completing a five-year prison sentence in the communist-run Caribbean nation, according to his supporters and a US embassy official.

Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been granted immigration parole in the US, a Facebook page maintained by family and supporters said Friday.

“Since early 2023, Luis has accepted exile as the only way to continue his work as an artist and activist, following the relentless repression he has endured,” his supporters said on Facebook.

“State Security left him no other option for release from prison.”

He will be released by the Cuban government and travel to the US tomorrow with his family, a US embassy official told CNN. The official added that the embassy had been pushing for his release.

CNN has reached out to the US State Department for more information.

The Cuban government has not yet commented on his expected release.

Otero Alcántara has been the highest profile dissident jailed in Cuba since the July 11, 2021, protests over Cuba’s lack of freedoms and worsening economy.

Before his arrest in 2021, Otero Alcántara and other members of his San Isidro Movement used social media to document their campaign against official censorship and the Cuban police and security officials that often shadowed their every move.

His protests and hunger strikes were a source of frustration to officials and led to multiple detentions.

In addition to being a critic of the Cuban government, Otero Alcántara is an internationally acclaimed artist. He shared a Grammy win for the song “Patria y Vida” (“Homeland and Life”) that blasted the Cuban government’s failures and repression.

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