Arbitrary Arrest of Luis Manuel Otero, Coordinator of the San Isidro Movement.
This morning Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, contemporary artist, human rights activist and main coordinator of the San Isidro Movement was arbitrary arrested by police in Habana. Luis Manuel was arrested on his way to the Capitolio to stage a peaceful protest.
His intention was to raise civic awareness against the violent attacks perpetrated by the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso and the Vice Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas against journalists and artistas as they were peaceful demonstrating outside the Ministry of Culture on January 27.
The artist had called people to join in a peaceful protest against the arbitrary and repression actions of the regime against independent artists and activist. Luis Manuel Otero has been reported on dozens of occasions in the past two years since he started in 2018 a crusade against Decree Law 349 (which codifies, formalizes and widens the scope of artistic censorship)
It was also reported that rapper Maykel Castillo (known as El Osorbo) was also arrested when he left his house to join the protest this morning to join the protest along with Alcántara.
Democratic Spaces calls on Canadian government to publicly remind the Castro regime of recommendation during the September 2018 Universal Periodic Review when Canada called the dictatorship in the island to “[24.171] Immediately eliminate harassment and intimidation of activists, including arbitrary short-term and pretrial detentions as well as house arrest (Canada).”
The regime in Cuba, however has ignored these recommendations and has unleashed a crackdown on all forms of peaceful protests, expanding its repressive scope to artists and other sectors of independent civil society.
