“Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpromising the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” – Vaclav Havel, Disturbing the Peace (1990)
Oslo Freedom Forum at XVII
Defending human rights and speaking truth to power for 17 years.
Since 2011 this blog has followed the Oslo Freedom Forum and the different human rights themes over the past decade, and celebrated in 2012 when the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent was inaugurated.
This year marks 17 years of this important human rights forum.
On the first day there was a debate on the effectiveness of sanctions as a policy tool, but left out of consideration the role that increased resources play in exporting authoritarian and totalitarian models to other countries.
Nearly ten years ago, in the Panam Post I made the case against loosening sanctions on dictatorships, using the example of what had happened on the two occasions that they were loosened on the Cuban regime.
“The Carter Administration was the first to lift the travel ban and hold high-level negotiations with the Cuban dictatorship, and both sides opened Interest Sections in their respective capitals between 1977 and 1981. Then from 1981 to 1982, the Castro regime executed approximately 80 prisoners, which was a marked escalation when compared to 1976. Furthermore, during the Carter presidency, Fidel Castro took steps that resulted in the violent deaths of US citizens.
During the Mariel crisis of 1980, when over 125,000 Cubans sought to flee the island, the Cuban dictator sought to save face by selectively releasing approximately 12,000 violent criminals or individuals who were insane into the exodus. According to his bodyguard, “with the stroke of a pen,” Fidel Castro personally “designated which ones could go and which ones would stay. ‘Yes’ was for murderers and dangerous criminals; ‘no’ was for those who had attacked the revolution.”
In Latin America, this warming of relations coincided with the arrival of the Sandinistas to power in Nicaragua in 1979 and a widening civil war in Central America, all with Cuban backing.
The second to seek engagement was the Clinton administration in the 1990s, similarly coinciding with brutal massacres. That included 37 Cubans in the “13 de Marzo” tugboat sinking (1994) and the murder of four in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down (1996). Despite all of this, President Clinton shook hands with Fidel Castro in 2000 and opened up cash-and-carry trade that formed a pro-Castro lobby in the United States. In Latin America, this warming of relations coincided with the arrival of Hugo Chavez to power in Venezuela in 1999 — with Cuban backing that has had negative consequences throughout the region.”
Cuban speaker Enrique Del Risco was present at the 17th edition of the Oslo Freedom Forum on the second day, and he highlighted how regime elites are building shiny high rise hotels, while average Cubans live in squalor. Western democracies are complicit in subsidizing these bad actors, often with taxpayer funds. Thanks to the U.S. embargo none of them are Americans.
Later the same day the 2025 recipients of the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent: Azza Abo Rebieh, Sasha Skochilenko, and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara were recognized.
Luis Manuel was able to deliver an audio message from his prison in Cuba.
This blog entry thus far is Cuba-centric, but the Oslo Freedom Forum spans the world, as do the human rights crises .
Oswaldo Payá when awarded the Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought on December 17, 2002 spoke prophetically when he said:
“The cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people. The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized.”
Too often some Cubans, for justifiable reasons, are focused on the troubles in Cuba, but fail to see what is happening elsewhere. Too many believe that we are alone, and that no one is watching our plight.
This is not true.
Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” explained why.
“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be… This is the inter-related structure of reality.”
Just as what happened in Cuba affected what is happening in Venezuela, and Nicaragua, so is what happening in China and Russia affecting Cuba. Therefore we owe it to ourselves to learn what is happening around the world, and to be in solidarity with human rights defenders, and friends of freedom everywhere.
Tomorrow, May 28, 2025, is the last day of the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum, please join them online.
https://notesfromthecubanexilequarter.substack.com/p/oslo-freedom-forum-at-xvii
The imprisoned voice of Cuban art: LMOA expresses gratitude for international award from maximum-security prison
By Iván León
He was detained after the protests on July 11, 2021, and sentenced in 2022 to seven years in prison for alleged crimes of offense against national symbols, contempt, and public disorder. In 2022, the UN declared his detention arbitrary and called for his immediate release.
During the forum, Cuban writer Enrique del Risco called for increased international pressure on the regime in Havana. “We cannot expect the regime to relinquish power voluntarily,” he stated. According to 14ymedio, the academic and activist also urged for sanctions against foreign companies that support it, such as the hotel chains Meliá and Blue Diamond.
For her part, Skochilenko, released in 2024 after a prisoner exchange, denounced the repression in Russia and warned: “Losing freedom outside of prison is much more terrifying than losing it inside.”
The Oslo Freedom Forum has been held annually since 2009 and serves as a key platform to amplify voices fighting against authoritarian regimes around the world.
A political prisoner that the world does not forget
Since that July 11, 2021, when he attempted to join the anti-government protests in Cuba and was arrested by regime agents, Otero Alcántara has not been released. But neither the bars, nor the silence that the authorities are trying to impose on him, have managed to silence his voice or diminish his influence.
From his cell in the maximum-security prison of Guanajay, he has continued to project his art and thoughts to the world.
“I struggle to close my eyes. In a deep sleep, my soul goes out to walk alongside my loved ones. Mind you, in two years I’ve never had a nightmare, so nothing has spoiled the gifts of creation”, he declared in an audio shared by Amnesty International in January 2024.
“Nothing will take away my drive, and I will not leave my work unfinished,” he added in an audio message sent to the NGO. Weeks later, he described the monotony of his confinement in stark terms: “Every day is the same“.
Even in that context of isolation and repression, international recognition has not been long in coming. In 2022, The United Nations acknowledged that his detention was arbitrary and demanded his immediate release.
In September 2024, the Rafto Foundation of Norway awarded him its prestigious Human Rights Prize, highlighting his “bravery in using art as a form of resistance against Cuban authoritarianism.”
The presentation of the Václav Havel International Award for Creative Dissent this May 2025 reinforces the symbolic and political impact that his figure represents: an artist who resists from the shadows, becoming a global symbol of the fight for freedom of expression under totalitarian regimes.
Throughout these nearly four years, various organizations, intellectuals, and governments have called for his release. More than 50 Cuban and foreign artists and scholars signed a declaration in 2022 demanding that his sentence be overturned.
For its part, Amnesty International has reiterated his status as a “prisoner of conscience,” and in November of that year, launched a global campaign to bring attention to his case.
The health of Otero Alcántara has also raised concerns. In May 2023, family members and activists warned that he had been ill for several days without receiving adequate medical attention, which added to previous hunger strikes and reports of inhumane conditions of confinement.
Far from being forgotten, Otero Alcántara is now a name that resonates in international forums, human rights institutions, and artistic platforms. His art continues to transcend the bars, becoming a form of resistance, a symbol, and an echo of a Cuba that still dreams of freedom.
https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2025-05-27-u207888-e207888-s27061-nid303742-voz-encarcelada-arte-cubano-lmoa-agradece