Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, of the protest movement San Isidro, announced Tuesday that he was released, a day after his arrest when he wanted to distribute candy to children as part of an artistic performance, a political provocation according to the authorities.
Read also: Cuba: a protest artist arrested for wanting to distribute candy to children
State television denounced the motives of this activity as an attempt to destabilize, claiming that the San Isidro movement is funded by the National Democratic Institute in the United States, a think tank led by the former secretary of state. Madeleine Albright.
The wife of the leader of the dissident Union Patriotique de Cuba (Unpacu) José Daniel Ferrer, who says he has been on hunger strike for 18 days, has also been released in the east of the country.
“
I am free and this morning we managed to distribute the sweets to the children of San Isidro.
Today we are Unpacu! ”
, published, in solidarity with the dissident movement, Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara on Tuesday on his Facebook page.
His arrest on Monday, along with that of another person dressed in a clown costume, was broadcast during a live internet video, when they tried to cross a police cordon in their neighborhood of San Isidro, in Old Havana. .
The candy distribution was part of an installation of paintings by the artist depicting confectionery wrappers, which he said Cuban children do not have access to due to shortages in the country.
This activity aimed to support the 30 members of Unpacu who say they are on hunger strike in Santiago de Cuba (East) to protest against the police blocking their distribution of food and medicine to the poor.
José Daniel Ferrer had denounced Monday the arrest of his wife and his 16-year-old daughter.
On Tuesday, US Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, of Cuban origin, announced the release of the wife.
“
I am informed that José Daniel Ferrer's wife has been released in Cuba.
She should never have been arrested! ”
, she wrote in a tweet, retweeted by Ferrer without giving details about her daughter.
This new episode of social protest, against the backdrop of the economic crisis and spurred on by the internet, comes ten days before the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, which will mark the retirement of Raul Castro.