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Cuban Artist Found at Havana Police Station

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HAVANA TIMES – The whereabouts of Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero, reported as disappeared last night while on a long pilgrimage to the San Lazaro Sanctuary, is now known.

Luis Manuel is being held without charges at the Aguilera police station in Lawton, Yanelys Nuñez Leyva told Havana Times.

“The friend who was with Luis last night when a patrol stopped them was released today in the morning and it was he who told me about his whereabouts. I just talked with the officer at the station desk and he told me that Luis is there because of ‘operational interest’.  He said Luis hasn’t been charged with anything but couldn’t say when he would be released.”

The appeal that Otero tries to take to the San Lazaro sanctuary asks the following:

Oh! Saint Lazarus
You who are stronger than all presidents
and the forces of this world
I ask you to help me with your divine power,
in this situation that afflicts the Cuban people
and me as one of them,
in this moment of despair
and that men cannot solve.
I summon you and I ask you miraculous saint
that you eliminate all miseries for Cubans;
that neither death and violence
be the path of transition;
I ask you for genuine democracy
where legality protects us.

Saint Lazarus you have my supplications
I ask you to remove the blockade,
Prosperity
Freedom of expression
Freedom for political prisoners
Free access to the Internet
Cessation of race, gender and creed discrimination;
no more repression!

OH! Babalú
You who always lived abandoned of everything,
sick and hungry, nobody would help you,
and you always had a good heart
and you knew how to put your trust in God
Intercede today for us.
Make my generation regain faith.

  • Anti-Imperialist

    What on earth is the government afraid of. This artist is an example of someone taking initiative to better the country. It’s the lack of initiative, or the squashing of whatever there is, that is serving the country on a platter to the supposed enemy. But I guess the old farts running the country could care less.

    • emagicmtman

      On the one hand, it is probably not worth the Revolution’s effort, not to say the bad press in the U.S.A. and Western Europe, to squash this artist. On the other hand, In Plato’s ideal Republic they take artists very seriously, and strictly control them; hence in ideal republics, such as Cuba is hoping to become, regulation of the artists is a serious matter. In the U.S.A. or Western Europe most talented artists are coopted, either by the state or by wealthy patrons. Others, serious, but with an enlightening message against the state, seldom see the light of day. They are frozen out of reaching a mass audience. Either way, it is a struggle to find art that really digs into the roots of our society.

  • emagicmtman

    On the contrary, Anti-Imperialist, the police were just watching out for him. If only he would cooperate with them, like Jesus Himself was offered (see the scene between Pontius Pilot and Jesus in both the novel and film version (available, with subtitles, on YouTube,) of “The Master and Margarita!”

    • Watching out for him???? Cooperate with them???? A lot of people cooperated with Hitler, how did that turn out for the world?

      • emagicmtman

        Before shooting from the hip, “armstro,” have you actually bothered watching the excerpt I recommended from “The Master and Margarita?” Thought not. No sense of humor about such things? Didn’t think so. Incidentally, since you mentioned Der Fuhrer, even my former boss, a former inmate of Auschwitz, used to joke about him. Of course, having acquired the experience–and survived–he had the right to joke about such things. In any event, just exactly what was Luis Manuel Otero dragging behind him? Although many sincere religious pilgrims drag themselves to the Sanctuary of San Lazaro, I was not aware that they dragged (what? a horse’s head? hard to determine) other items. Could the public health authorities be concerned that he seems to be dragging a dead animal? Or maybe they are concerned with his safety and/or sanity, though such experiential/conceptual artists often embellish their artistic statement with such dramatic editions to their performances. In any event, such harassment and overnight stays in jail may be part of their “performance art,” and the authorities are all to willing to fulfill their role it the artwork.