Cuban political prisoners central to ongoing negotiations with US
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
From the moment the Trump administration toppled former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s longtime ally Cuba has been in the White House’s crosshairs. In the aftermath of that operation, President Donald Trump declared Cuba would be “next.” On April 10th, the U.S. gave Cuban leaders only two weeks to free political prisoners if they wanted to preemptively land a deal with the U.S. Cuba then made an offer to two of their higher profile prisoners – Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: They could either leave Cuba or stay and rot in prison. Both agreed to be exiled. Yet both still languish behind bars. USA TODAY Investigative Reporter Rick Jervis joins The Excerpt to talk about what’s next for Castillo and Otero as well as high-level negotiations between US and Cuban officials.
Please note: Cuban officials did not return USA TODAY interview requests for comment.
Responding to a request for comment from USA TODAY, a State Department official said the Cuban regime continues to show indifference to the suffering of the Cuban people and is still holding hundreds of political prisoners. The official reiterated that President Trump favors a diplomatic solution but will not allow Cuba to deteriorate into a greater national security threat.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the moment the Trump administration toppled former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, |
| 0:09.4 | Venezuela's longtime ally Cuba, has been in the White House's crosshairs. |
| 0:15.2 | In the aftermath of that operation, President Donald Trump declared Cuba would be, quote, |
| 0:19.7 | next. |
| 0:20.7 | On April 10th, the U.S. gave Cuban leaders only two weeks to free political prisoners if they wanted to preemptively land a deal with the U.S. |
| 0:30.3 | Cuba then made an offer to two of their higher-profile prisoners, Michael Castillo Perez and Luis Manuel Oterra Alcantara. |
| 0:38.6 | They could either leave Cuba or stay and rot in prison. Both agreed to be exiled, yet both |
| 0:45.2 | still languish behind bars. |
| 0:50.5 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, May 14th, |
| 0:56.4 | 2026. Here to talk about what's next for Castillo and Otero, as well as high-level |
| 1:02.9 | negotiations between the U.S. and Cuban officials. I'm now joined by USA Today investigative |
| 1:08.3 | reporter Rick Chervis. Rick, thank you so much for taking the time out and joining me. |
| 1:12.6 | It's good to be here, Dana. Rick, can you please start us out by telling us how you came to know these two prisoners, Castillo and Otero? |
| 1:21.6 | Who are they? And what made their story so compelling to you and your colleagues? |
| 1:26.6 | So pretty much anybody following Cuba for the last couple of years have heard of these two individuals. |
| 1:34.9 | Michael Castillo Perez is a Cuban rapper and Luis. |
| 1:39.3 | Manuel Otero is an activist and a visual artist. that became really well known in 2021 during widespread protests in Cuba, mostly because Michael actually was part of a rap group that created this song, Patriot and Vida. |
| 1:58.1 | It was a hip-hop song created by hip-hop artists both on the island and outside of the |
| 2:04.6 | island by cuban exiles and it was it's kind of a protest song it basically like denounced a lot of the |
| 2:11.0 | lack of freedoms in cuba and it just became viral and within a of months, it had more than a million views. |
| 2:19.2 | And it became sort of the anthem of these widespread protests found in Cuba in 2021. |
| 2:25.9 | So it was a really one-on song. Michael was known to be part of that. And Luis was also deeply involved with the actual group that, like, made it. |
... |
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