CUBA: Cuban dissident on 10th day of hunger strike

Record ID: 340103

  • Title: CUBA: Cuban dissident on 10th day of hunger strike
  • Date: 6th March 2010
  • Summary: SANTA CLARA, CUBA (MARCH 05, 2010) (REUTERS) HORSE CARRIAGE DRIVING BY POSTER WITH PHOTO OF ERNESTO "CHE" GUEVARA IN CITY'S ENTRANCE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AND CARS ON STREET CUBAN DISSIDENT WHO HAS BEEN ON A HUNGER STRIKE, GUILLERMO FARINAS, WALKING DOWN STAIRS IN HIS HOUSE FARINAS SHOWING HIS BODY MARK ON FARINA'S NECK WHERE DOCTORS INJECTED SALTS AND FLUIDS TO TREAT HIS
  • Embargoed: 21st March 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8G36H23534AIFYG8IKLP9BQD1
  • Story Text: Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas said on Friday (March 5) that his health was deteriorating, but he would continue a hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners.
    Forty-eight-year-old Farinas stopped eating and drinking ten days ago following the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who was also on a hunger strike.
    Zapata's death was condemned internationally and prompted calls from the United States and Europe for Cuba to release its estimated 200 political prisoners.
    Farinas was hospitalized on Wednesday after he fainted because of hypoglycemia and was later released although doctors recommended he continue the treatment if he carried on his strike.
    He said the Cuban government must release the 26 prisoners who have been on a hunger strike to prevent more deaths.
    "In order for there not to be another Orlando Zapata Tamayo, I believe that it is best that they release these 26 prisoners (on hunger strike) who are running an imminent risk of death as diagnosed by the interior ministry's doctors. It would be an act of good will (by President Raul Castro) toward the people and the international community," he said, in the living room of his home in Santa Clara.
    Zapata, a 42-year-old plumber, died on February 23 after an 85-day hunger strike to protest conditions in prison, where he had been held since 2003, serving 36 years in sentences for crimes including resistance and disrespect.
    Farinas said he would die if the government refused to release the prisoners.
    "I'm willing to follow through with this hunger strike to the last consequences, including my own death," he said.
    Cuba said in state-run press during the weekend that Zapata was a common criminal used by Cuba's enemies for political purposes.
    Farinas, who said he has been on 22 previous hunger strikes, told reporters that if the Cuban officials refused to answer his appeal others would follow in his steps.
    "In my case there is a specific vengeance. They are not going to let me live. What happened in the hospital says it all (having been released after receiving treatment). Now, it is important that the government knows and it does and that the international community knows that after Guillermo Farinas dies someone else will come and replace me and start a hunger strike and this will continue," he said.
    Earlier in the week, Farinas was visited by two government doctors, but he refused treatment.
    Cuban leaders consider dissidents to be U.S. mercenaries working to overthrow the communist-led government.
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