Freed artist accepts democracy award on behalf of imprisoned dissidents in Cuba

Mount Vernon, Virginia

To the rhythm of the song “Patria y Vida” — Homeland and Life — three Cuban dissidents were honored on the grounds of George Washington’s estate in Virginia on Thursday evening for their work to uphold democratic values under authoritarian rule, an honor that two of the three could not accept because they are still in Cuban prisons.

The National Endowment for Democracy gave its 2026 Democracy Award for freedom of speech to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, the performance artist and co-founder of the San Isidro Movement; rapper Maykel Castillo, known as Maykel Osorbo; and Félix Navarro, the veteran opposition figure and former teacher.

Otero Alcántara, released from prison this summer and forced into exile in the United States, also accepted the award on behalf of Castillo, who remains in prison. José Daniel Ferrer, founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, who was himself pushed into exile in 2025, accepted the award on behalf of Navarro, who is also in prison.

“This is a recognition for the over a thousand political prisoners who are still fighting in Cuba,” Otero Alcántara said. “This award is a reminder that such sacrifice should be taken into account, that Cuba’s civil society needs to be heard.

“We are here today to raise our voices for the millions of Cubans who are still captive on the island,” he added.

Otero Alcántara said he was deeply moved to receive the award at Mount Vernon, noting that just a few weeks ago he was in a Cuban prison, not knowing what the future held.

He flew to Miami in July after serving a five-year sentence that had made him one of the most recognizable symbols of the Cuban government’s crackdown on independent artists and critics. He and Castillo Pérez were sentenced to five and nine years, respectively, on charges that included contempt, public disorder, insulting national symbols, assault and defamation of institutions. Amnesty International recognized both as prisoners of conscience.

Castillo remains held in the maximum-security prison at Guanajay, southwest of Havana, where he turned 43 in August.

“Maykel is a symbol of resistance and a symbol of those who continue to fight inside Cuba for freedom,” Otero Alcantara said. “He should have been here.”

Navarro is serving a third stretch as a political prisoner. Released in 2011 without accepting exile, he was detained again after the islandwide protests on July 11, 2021, and sentenced to nine years. He was granted parole in January 2025 and returned to prison that April. His family says he has diabetes and respiratory illness. In May, Navarro and his daughter Saylí Navarro, also imprisoned, turned down an offer of exile relayed by an auxiliary bishop of Havana, according to U.S. government outlet Marti Noticias.

The Trump administration has urged Cuba to release over a thousand political prisoners on the island, according to estimates by activists and human rights organizations. When the Cuban government announced the release of 2,010 prisoners in April as a humanitarian gesture, only two were political prisoners, according to El Toque, a Cuba news outlet based in Miami that verified the government’s official list.

NED President and CEO Damon Wilson framed the decision to honor people who cannot collect their awards as a deliberate one.

“We don’t abandon people when the headlines move on,” he said. “We stay with them.”

NED has a long history of backing Cuban dissidents and civil society, Eddy Acevedo, the organization’s vice president for policy and government relations and a former congressional staffer, told the Miami Herald.

“NED’s support has been vital to empowering democratic actors, exposing human rights abuses, defending religious freedom, and amplifying the voices of Cubans suffering under an authoritarian regime,” he said. “By standing with those on the front lines, NED is helping courageous Cubans who are playing an important role in building the foundations for a free and democratic Cuba.”

Patria y Vida closes the night

The award ceremony ended with a performance of “Patria y Vida,” the song that became the unofficial anthem of the 2021 protests. Castillo won Grammys for the track as one of its co-authors. Otero Alcantara featured in the song’s official video.

Released in February 2021, the song inverts the revolutionary slogan patria o muerte — homeland or death — into homeland and life, and became the rallying cry of the largest demonstrations in decades on July 11 that year.

“With those simple words, Cubans reaffirmed their patriotism, a love of country rooted in life, human dignity and freedom,” said former U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, a board member of the International Republican Institute, who introduced Otero Alcantara and two of the song’s authors, rappers Yotuel Romero and Eliecer Marquez, known as El Funky, to the stage.

NED also presented its Champion of Freedom Democracy Award to two members of Congress: Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat.

Presenting the award, Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat and honorary NED board member, told the audience that “democracy needs love today,” including in the United States, in a jab at the Trump administration, which has cut funding for democracy programs.

NED said it will present Díaz-Balart with his award in person at a future date.

Díaz-Balart, a Cuban American from Miami, has spent his career pressing the issue of Cuba in Washington. As chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs, he has helped secure U.S. support for democracy and human rights initiatives across the Western Hemisphere, including in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

That chairmanship has made him a consequential figure for NED itself.

His appropriations bill for the State Department and foreign assistance this year cut spending roughly 16 percent but spared NED from the cuts the Trump administration proposed.

In February, his subcommittee held an oversight hearing with Wilson, where Díaz-Balart argued that NED and accountable democracy programs are essential to countering U.S. adversaries and standing with people struggling for freedom under repressive regimes in places like Iran, China and Cuba.

Other winners

The ceremony centered on the 250th anniversary of American independence, with each award tied to one of the five freedoms of the First Amendment.

Other honorees included the Ethiopian outlet Addis Standard for freedom of the press, accepted by founder Tsedale Lemma; the Russian clergy group Peace Unto All for freedom of religion, accepted by Fathers Andrey Kordochkin and Valerian Dunin-Barkovsky, and the pro-democracy organizers of Burma’s Spring Revolution for freedom of assembly, accepted by Nan Lin in a video from an undisclosed location where he remains in hiding. Belarusian human rights defender and Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski received the Democracy Service Medal from John Coale, the U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus, who negotiated his release.

The freedom of petition award went to the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, led by Mazen Darwish and Yara Bader, who could not attend. NED said it will present the award to them in person in Damascus this fall.

The evening also included a tribute to the Ukrainian people and marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.