By Jeff Franks, ReutersMarch 11, 2010 6:10 PM
Cuban opposition activist Guillermo Farinas is helped to stand up by
doctor Ismel Iglesias at his home in Santa Clara, Cuba, March 10, 2010.
Farina, who has been in hunger strike for two weeks, said that he is
ready to die if President Raul Castro doesn't release 26 seriously ill
political prisoners.
Cuban opposition activist Guillermo Farinas is helped to stand up by
doctor Ismel Iglesias at his home in Santa Clara, Cuba, March 10, 2010.
Farina, who has been in hunger strike for two weeks, said that he is
ready to die if President Raul Castro doesn't release 26 seriously ill
political prisoners.
Photograph by: Adalberto Roque, AFP/Getty Images
HAVANA - Cuban dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas collapsed and
was rushed to a hospital on Thursday, but appeared to be recovering as
doctors administered fluids intravenously, his spokeswoman said.
He regained consciousness while being treated in the intensive care unit
of a hospital near his home in Santa Clara, 270 km southeast of Havana,
spokeswoman Licet Zamora told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Farinas, 48, stopped eating and drinking on Feb. 24, a day after the
death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo following an 85-day
hunger strike, which touched off an international outcry against Cuba
that has yet to end.
The European Parliament, the elected body of the 27-nation European
Union, on Thursday condemned the island's communist government for the
"avoidable and cruel" death of Zapata and expressed concern at the
"alarming state" of Farinas.
He collapsed last week, but said he recovered after eight liters of
fluids were fed into his body.
The freelance journalist, who has conducted 22 previous hunger strikes,
has said he is ready to die if the Cuban government does not concede to
his demands that 26 political prisoners in ill health be released.
His death likely would bring more international repercussions for Cuba,
but the government took a tough stance this week, saying in a story on
Monday in the state-run press that it would not be "blackmailed" by him
nor held responsible for his death if it comes.
On Thursday, the Cuban National Assembly denounced the European
Parliament vote as "great cynicism" and vowed not to bow to
international pressure on human rights.
"If there is an area in which our country does not need to defend itself
with words, because reality is indisputable, that is in its struggle for
human life and not only for those born in Cuba but elsewhere, too," it
said in a statement, referring to Cuban doctors serving in impoverished
countries.
KIDNEY PAIN
Despite its tough talk, Cuba this week asked Spain to offer Farinas
political asylum, which he turned down, and sent doctors to examine him
on Wednesday. They told him he needed to go to the hospital, but he refused.
Zamora said Farinas suffered severe kidney pain on Thursday and shortly
before he collapsed the government sent an ambulance to his house to
take him to the hospital, but he rejected the offer.
Fifteen minutes later, he lost consciousness and was rushed to the
hospital in the car of a foreign news agency, she said.
Farinas' collapse came as dissident Cuban bloggers were en route to
Santa Clara to try to persuade him to stop his hunger strike, blogger
Yoani Sanchez reported on Twitter.
"If Farinas decides to continue with the hunger strike, it's up to us to
pressure public opinion to not let him die," she wrote.
Analysts said Zapata's death was likely to have torpedoed earlier
efforts by Spain, currently leading the EU, to water down the EU's
common position on Cuba, which includes a call for democracy and
improved human rights on the island.
Cuba has said the EU's position is an obstacle to better EU-Cuba relations.
The hunger striker's death also has set back efforts by U.S. President
Barack Obama to improve U.S. relations with Cuba after five decades of
hostility, experts say.
Cuba's communist government views dissidents as mercenaries working for
the United States to subvert the island's one-party socialist state. It
has accused both Zapata and Farinas of being common criminals, saying
they became dissidents to get material benefits and support from the
United States.
Cuba hunger striker recovering after collapse (12 March 2010)
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Cuba+hunger+striker+recovering+after+collapse/2672374/story.html
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