CUBA/FILE: Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas returns to hunger strike

Record ID: 340173

  • Title: CUBA/FILE: Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas returns to hunger strike
  • Date: 5th June 2011
  • Summary: SANTA CLARA, CUBA (JUNE 4, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOUSE OF DISSIDENT GUILLERMO FARINAS MAN SMOKING PIPE OUTSIDE OF HOUSE FARINAS ENTERING HIS HOUSE VARIOUS OF FARINAS MEETING WITH MEMBERS OF OPPOSITION GROUP "UNITED ANTI-TOTALITARIAN FORUM: JUAN WILFREDO SOTO GARCIA" (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CUBAN DISSIDENT, GUILLERMO FARINAS, SAYING: "We are asking for the direct p
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1A58F6BGDDWWRC06S8BR82DDX
  • Story Text: Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas began a new hunger strike on Saturday (June 4) to demand the Cuban government prosecute those responsible for the recent death of another dissident.
    Forty-six-year-old Juan Wilfredo Soto was beaten and detained by police during a protest in Santa Clara, according to dissidents.
    Soto, who suffered from diabetes, hypertension and other health problems, was quickly released but then checked into the Arnaldo Milian Hospital where he died three days later on May 8.
    Soto's supporters believe his death resulted from the beating, but sources close to the government quoted Dr. Ruben Aneiro Median of the hospital as saying Soto died of pancreatitis and kidney failure and there were no signs of physical violence.
    The Cuban government denied that he had been beaten and denounced the dissidents for launching "a new defamatory campaign" against the Cuban revolution.
    A group of Soto's supporters joined Farinas at his home in Santa Clara on Saturday to discuss the situation. Farinas said Soto had told dozens of people about the beating before he died, and claimed their testimony could be used in court.
    "Here we are in Santa Clara, in the province of Villa Clara - there are people who are not from Santa Clara - there are 30 referential witnesses to what Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia told us with respect to the beating that he suffered. And according to the theory of Cuban law, the witnesses can be experts, they can be eyewitnesses and they can be referential witnesses," he said.
    Farinas said their demand was simple.
    "This is the manipulation of the Cuban government that wants us to forget this murder and we, as the opposition, are not going to forget. Because our lives are in play here, but also, in this play, there can be a civil war if the violence that this government is applying continues escalating. Purely and simply, we are asking the government to fulfill its own laws and order - we are referring to the highest figures in government, referring to Fidel and Raul Castro - to do a speedy prosecution on the issues and listen to us as opposition," he said.
    In 2010, forty-nine-year-old Farinas was close to death after going for 142 without eating to draw attention to Cuba's political prisoners. He ended his hunger strike when Cuban President Raul Castro approved the release of 52 dissidents from jail.
    Saturday's hunger strike is Farinas' 24th in 15 years.
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