Angel Moya Acosta

Who is Angel Moya Acosta?

Angel Moya Acosta is a Cuban construction worker and the founder of the Alternative Option Movement.

Moya fought for one-and-a-half years in the Cuban intervention in Angola in the late 1980s. In the following decade, Moya was arrested several times for his activism. In December 1997, he was arrested on his way to join a public memorial, and in November 1999 he was arrested for participating in a prayer session for dissident Oscar Biscet. On 15 December 1999, he was arrested and imprisoned after a demonstration along with fellow Alternative Option Movement members Guido and Ariel Sigler Amaya; the latter arrest caused Amnesty International to designate him a prisoner of conscience. In 2000, he was arrested and imprisoned for a year for "disrespect" after commemorating the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

He was again imprisoned during the Black Spring in 2003, and sentenced to 20 years in jail. His wife Berta Soler, now leader of the Ladies in White movement, campaigned on his behalf.