CUBA: Guillermo Farinas leaves hospital after hunger strike which added to international pressure on Cuba to free political prisoners

Record ID: 339766

  • Title: CUBA: Guillermo Farinas leaves hospital after hunger strike which added to international pressure on Cuba to free political prisoners
  • Date: 31st July 2010
  • Summary: GUILLERMO FARIÑAS WITH DAUGHTER
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1PYFYITMGIYR1O2PN13RE33S5
  • Story Text: Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas, whose long hunger strike helped pressure the Cuban government into releasing political prisoners, left the hospital on Thursday (July 29), not fully recovered, but ready to resume his life of opposition.
    Three weeks after ending his 135-day fast, Farinas -- who is still weak and has trouble walking -- said he is surprised to be home and happy to be with his family.
    "I'm still surprised to be home, to have my brother at my side, that there's no glass between us, that I hugged my daughter who grew so much in these past five months," he said from his central Cuban home in Santa Clara.
    He stopped eating and drinking on February 24 and ended the strike on July 8, a day after the government pledged to release 52 jailed dissidents in a deal with the Catholic Church.
    His hunger strike added to international criticism of the Cuban government that followed the February 23 death of imprisoned dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo and the harassment of the opposition group "Ladies in White" during protest marches.
    The 48-year-old psychologist and writer said he was pleased with the latest developments.
    "I think there are no winners nor losers here. I think that the government won because it learned to deal with its opposition, with part of its people that oppose it politically, without there being more deaths-- and that's an achievement for the Cuban government: that it be flexible. And I think the opposition won political and social maturity within the Cuban context and, above all, it learned -- without a need to exercise physical nor verbal violence -- that the government can cede to our demands," he said.
    Farinas collapsed on March 11 and from then on received nutrients and liquids intravenously in a hospital in his hometown of Santa Clara, 168 miles (270 km) east of Havana.
    He said he is eating "small quantities" of food and remains under treatment for a blood clot in his neck that doctors had described as life-threatening.
    He said he would spend his first week out of the hospital giving interviews to the international press, then resume his work of editing and writing for a dissident blog.
    So far, 20 of the promised 52 prisoners have been released in a process the church said could take four months.
    Farinas said he is prepare to relaunch his hunger strike if the prisoners are not all freed by November 7.
    Farinas had conducted 22 previous hunger strikes, including a seven-month strike seeking improved Internet access.
    Cuban officials consider dissidents to be U.S.-backed mercenaries working to subvert the island's communist-led government.
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