"This will be the most controlled and censored Biennale in history," said Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero, detained in Havana

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Cuban artist and activist, was arrested without just cause by the police a few days ago. "I'm already on the street," he wrote a few hours later on social media. "The threats do not stop, and all that he does not do anything during the XIII Biennial of Havana"He explained.

The big exhibition, which will extend from April 12 to May 12 in the capital of Cuba, open like this before the time and with controversy. In addition to the harbadment of several creators –Coco Fusco, who was not allowed to enter the island, and Tania Bruguera, also detained and released– the Biennale Without 349 will meet, then parallel to the official event, the work of artists who oppose Decree 349, which criminalizes the independent art.

Since he was involved in the founding of the Museum of Dissent in Cuba, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been arrested dozens of times by the Havana police.

Otero complains that the State security and cultural institutions try to separate it from Cuban public by creating "an unfounded fear that I appear, or the artists of 349. As if we were the enemies of the Biennale!"he said to CUBANET.

"What will put the Biennial in crisis will be the pbadivity of the artistsadded the co-founder of the Museum of Dissent in Cuba "I'm not saying it will be a fiasco, but that it will be one of the most controlled and most censored in history"

Otero was preparing to make a "special tribute" to Daniel Llorente, who crossed the Plaza de la Revolución during the parade on May 1, 2017, with an American flag, for which he spent months in confinement at the Mazorra psychiatric hospital.

Llorente and her son, Eliecer Llorente, were also Arrested as Otero, while they were preparing to go to a photo shoot for an artistic purpose. They were also released later.

Otero described his project as "a tribute to the little story"Llorente" has no national project to reverse the system, "he said.This is a tired Cuban and one day he said: "I'm going out against these people" "He told the news site.

"I'm going to calculate the distance that Daniel Llorente managed to cover, which I think was about 73 meters, and I will generate a competition so that people can run the same distance with a shirt and an American flag. There will be prizes for the first three places, which will be awarded during a solemn ceremony by Llorente himself. And the event can register anyone who wishes, "detailed his proposal, which will include a evocation of the Chanel fashion show at the Prado.

Since he's inaugurated the Museum of Dissent in Cuba – a website on opponents of government in the country's history, which places current members near José Martí or Fidel Castro-, Otero has suffered many arrests. His position before the authorities did not improve when he became one of the leaders fundamental names of the campaign against Decree 349.

The new standard updates Decree 226 of 1997 and regulates cultural policy, such as the "provision of artistic services". In addition to public spaces, economic reforms have allowed the proliferation of private art spaces,and now requires the official approval of the sample of a work and the representation of the inspector is created You can finish an exhibition, a book reading or a concert if you determine that they do not conform to the official cultural policy.

Otero directs the Manifesto of San Isidro, a proclamation of artists – Amaury Pacheco, Iris Ruiz, Michel Matos, Soandry del Río and Yanelys Núñez, among others – against this form of censorship. And also against the inspectors, "characters who could perfectly have been created by surrealism".

The artist who 2018 was co-organizer of the biennial event Biennial # 00"It promises to be a biennial with a giant level of political and civic persecution," added Cubanet.

Cuban artists participating in the San Isidro Manifesto oppose Decree 349 which imposes censorship and creates the figure of the inspector.