MIAMI (AP) 鈥� A famous Cuban dissident artist and musician, Luis Manuel Otero Alc谩ntara, arrived in Miami on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on the condition that he leave his country.
Alc谩ntara, 38, was greeted at the airport by a crowd that was cheering, singing and holding their phones high in the air to get a photo of him. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words 鈥淧atria y Vida鈥� 鈥� 鈥淗omeland and Life鈥� 鈥� the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba鈥檚 political opposition against repression.
The United States granted him parole into the country earlier this week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.
Alc谩ntara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement 鈥� named for the neighborhood where Alc谩ntara lived.
He was arrested on July 11, 2021, during a public protest. In 2022, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.
His arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, an allegation the Cuban government rejected.
Alc谩ntara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released last week. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.
The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.
Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were not sure of his location, or if he was truly free.
His said his first stop on American soil would be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity to make an offering.
Other political prisoners remained imprisoned, including his fellow artist Maykel 鈥淥sorbo鈥� Castillo P茅rez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alc谩ntara’s release would prompt insistence that P茅rez also be set free.
Alc谩ntara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.
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