Although Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara has been a prisoner of conscience since 2021, he continues to create art capturing the horrors and brutality of a communist gulag. The images he creates are so powerful, the Castro dictatorship has prohibited any of the artwork to leave the maximum security prison where the dissident artist is being held.
Authorities at the maximum-security prison in Guanajay, Artemisa, have prohibited artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara from taking his drawings out of the penitentiary, according to art curator Claudia Genlui’s statement to Martí Noticias.
This decision comes after an exhibition of Luis Manuel Otero’s artwork was shown in Miami.
“He is painting, but they won’t let him take the drawings out. We provided him with all the materials, but they don’t allow those drawings to leave the prison. This happened after our last exhibition,” art curator Genlui told Martí Noticias.
Throughout his imprisonment, Otero Alcantara has been a victim of psychological torture by his captors. According to Claudia Genlui, it is his art that has helped him maintain his sanity,