Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara

In 2017 Alcántara was arrested for "being in illicit possession of construction materials" in relation to his work as a cofounder of the #00 bienal de la Habana, an alternative event to the official Havana Biennial.[8][9]

In April 2019 Alcántara was arrested by the Cuban police during his participation in a satellite event of the Havana Biennial.[6][10]

On August 10, 2019 Alcántara was arrested in Havana during part of his performance Drapeau. In the work, he wore a Cuban flag draped over his shoulders, in defiance of a 2019 law dictating how the flag could be used.[3][11][12]

On March 1, 2020 Alcántara was arrested in Havana on the charges of defiling patriotic symbols and property damage.[13][4] At the time of the arrest, was on the way to join a protest at the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television against the censorship of a two men kissing on television.[14][15]

In November 2020, Alcántara took part in a hunger strike as part of the San Isidro Movement. Alcántara and other protesters were twice detained by police during the protest.[16][17][18]

On December 3, 2020, he was released from prison, but arrested again the same day when he joined another protest. He was released to house arrest the same day.[19][20]

In April 2021, he initiated another hunger strike, gaining widespread attention and global media coverage.[21] In May, State security agents dressed as civilians broke into Alcántara's house and forcibly detained him and the poet Afrika Reina.[22][23] To justify their assault, agents outside the house yelled, “¡Qué viva la revolución! ¡Qué viva Fidel!” The agents also confiscated some of Otero's most recent art work.[23][22] Later that month, in solidarity with Alcantera, a group of activist Cuban artists working under the name 27N asked the director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Havana to remove their works from public exhibition.[22] On May 21, 2021 Amnesty International named Alcantara a prisoner of conscience.[24][25] A few days later a group of prominent international cultural figures, including Junot Díaz, Edwidge Danticat, Julie Mehretu, John Akomfrah, and Carrie Mae Weems, issued a public letter to the Cuban president requesting Alcántara's release.[26]

On May 31, 2021 the San Isidro Movement confirmed that Alcántara had been released from custody, after being detained in a hospital for over four weeks.[26] In 2021, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list.[27]