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[NEWS] Cuban Dissident Artist Hospitalised Amid Hunger Strike


May 4, 2021 


Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara is in stable condition in a hospital in the Cuban capital Havana, health authorities said on Sunday.

Photo: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters 




Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a leader of artist-activist group San Isidro Movement (MSI), has been hospitalized in Havana more than a week after embarking on a hunger strike, Al Jazeera reports. Said yesterday by officials at General Calixto Garcia University Hospital to be in stable condition following his arrival there, Otero Alcántara reportedly undertook the hunger strike on April 26 to protest the government’s seizure or destruction of several of his artworks earlier this month. Because police had surrounded his home, no one was allowed in or out during his hunger strike, and the BBC has said that relatives and friends say they have not been allowed to communicate with him to date.

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Young artists protest in front of the doors of the Ministry of Culture in Havana in November last year 
after police evicted protesters who had participated in a hunger strike 
Photo: Ismael Francisco/AP Photo 




According to MSI, which was formed in 2018 to protest government censorship of artistic expression, Otero Alcántara was forced from his residence by state officials and is being held, ostensibly in the hospital. They questioned the report and demanded more information. “How is it possible he has no signs of malnutrition or dehydration after being on a hunger and thirst strike for more than 7 days?” the group said on Twitter. Fellow MSI member Amaury Pacheco, a poet, noted on Twitter that the thirty-three-year-old artist could “no longer stay upright, his skin and mouth is parched, he does not urinate or speak. He has an inflamed throat.” According to Reuters, hospital authorities had characterized Otero Alcántara as “walking without difficulty.”





 
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, depone la huelga de sed a las 4:30 PM 
Photo: ADNCuba 




Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for the US State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, called on the Cuban government "to take immediate steps to protect his life and health." and the US embassy in Cuba asserting that the artist should be “treated with dignity and respect.” 








“We have seen reports that he is hospitalised and his condition is stable. We urge the authorities to protect his well-being at this difficult time,” the embassy tweeted.





 



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