Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara receives Rafto Human Rights Prize despite imprisonment in Cuba

The 2024 Rafto Human Rights Prize has been awarded to Cuban artist and dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, currently imprisoned in Cuba. The award recognizes his “fearless opposition to authoritarianism through art,” as highlighted by the Norway-based Rafto Foundation. Otero Alcantara, an emblematic figure of the San Isidro Movement, uses his art as a means of resistance against the Cuban regime, which has earned him multiple arrests and a sentence in 2022 to five years in prison for “insulting the symbols of the homeland” and “disturbing public order.”

The artist, described as a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International, was arrested on July 11, 2021, while trying to participate in anti-government protests in Havana. The Cuban regime considers him not as an artist, but as an agent in the service of the United States, accusing the latter of orchestrating the protests that mobilized thousands of Cubans. The awarding of the Rafto Prize aims to highlight the importance of Otero Alcantara’s work in the struggle for democracy and human rights, both in Cuba and around the world.

The Rafto Prize, worth $20, is awarded annually to a person or organization that defends human rights. Founded in 000 in memory of historian Thorolf Rafto, it has already been a stepping stone to the Nobel Peace Prize for some of its laureates, including Aung San Suu Kyi and José Ramos-Horta.

Alice Leroy