Cuba: Dissident artist was released from hospital four weeks after Art and Culture News

Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, head of the San Isidro protest movement, was admitted to hospital on May 2 after a hunger strike.

The dissident Cuban artist, who spent eight days on hunger strike, was released from hospital on Monday, the Havana public health authority said.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, a 33-year-old leader of the San Isidro protest movement (MSI) of artists and intellectuals who promote greater freedom of expression, went on a hunger strike last month to protest the authorities ’seizure of his various works.

Zen hospitalized on May 2, eight days after the start of the hunger strike.

“I am very happy and calm, now that he is at least in his home,” Otero Alcantara’s friend and activist Iris Ruiz told Reuters. “There was so much uncertainty before.”

Calixto Garcia, who was treated at the university’s main hospital, announced that he was “completely healed” and Otero Alcantara “reaffirmed his gratitude to the staff who cared for him in every opportunity.”

In the early days of his hospital stay, authorities released videos that appeared to be in good health but those close to Otero Alcantara said they could not communicate with him.

Amnesty International described him as a “prisoner of conscience” earlier this month, saying the state’s security was under surveillance and incommunicado at the hospital.

U.S. State Department official Julie Chung expressed concern about Otero Alcantara’s condition when she was admitted to the hospital and called on the Cuban government to “take immediate measures to protect her life and health.”

The Cuban Embassy in the United States also said at the time that Otero Alcantara, like all Cubans, “deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”

After his arrest last month, he was released but re-arrested for trying to leave the house surrounded by police.

During the hunger strike, his Internet service was cut off and police prevented people, including two priests, from visiting Otero Alcantara.

MSI said he was forcibly taken to hospital and said official medical reports of his condition were “confusing and contradictory”.

As a sign of solidarity, last week about 20 Cuban artists were asked to hide their work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Havana from public view. The museum rejected the request, saying it was not in the “public interest.”

Painter Tomas Sanchez, 73, wrote on Facebook: “Cuban art is going through dark times … there is no criminalization of inequality and there will never be a path to coexistence.”

Members of the San Isidro Movement were celebrated a rare protest in November before the Ministry of Culture, against restrictions on freedom of expression and the arrest of artists and activists.

Since then, authorities have turned to the state media to denounce its members and allies as troublemakers working with the U.S. to destabilize the government. The group has denied the allegations.