Cuban Artist Luis Manuel Otero Still Kidnapped
at the Calixto Garcia hospital in Havana
HAVANA TIMES – Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara continues prisoner in the Calixto Garcia hospital where he was forcibly taken on Sunday, May 2, after State Security broke into his house/workshop in the San Isidro neighborhood of Old Havana.
From the beginning, the government has tried to discredit the hunger and thirst strike that Otero held for seven days, revealing the alleged result of various lab tests, and manipulated news.
However, his prolonged stay in the hospital confirms that Luis Manuel was not as well as the government maintained during its nightly defaming of the artist on the State news.
A week after being “admitted”, the artist is still incommunicado, he does not have access to his phone, his friends cannot get close, and the hospital remains militarized.
Meanwhile, many people express their opinions on the social networks and there are concerns about the treatment he receives.
Why was Luis Manuel on a hunger and thirst strike?
Otero demands that the authorities return his art works that State Security stole from him when they violently broke into his house, prior to his hunger strike. He also demands that they lift the police siege that he has had on him for months, treating him worse than a murderer.
Luis Manuel has been detained, interrogated, and threatened more than a dozen times. Apparently, his art demanding freedom and an end to repressive laws against artists and others who differ from government policies, has the authorities more concerned than the severe shortages of food and basic medicines suffered by the vast majority of the Cuban people.