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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Cuban hunger striker unconscious, hospitalized

Posted on Wednesday, 03.03.10
Cuban hunger striker unconscious, hospitalized
The Associated Press

HAVANA -- A Cuban dissident who has spent a week on a hunger strike has
been rushed to a hospital in central Cuba after losing consciousness, a
family spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Guillermo Farinas, a journalist who files Internet dispatches in
defiance of state control of nearly all domestic media, has held at
least 24 hunger strikes since 1997 but said this time he was prepared to
go until he dies to honor Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a construction worker
who died on Feb. 23 after refusing food for weeks.

The death of Zapata Tamayo, considered a "prisoner of conscience" by
Amnesty International, has energized the island's small political
opposition community. Farinas was one of five dissidents - four of whom
are in prison - to stop eating in his honor.

Farinas was taken to a hospital near him home in the central city of
Santa Clara around midday, said Licet Zamora, who is the family's
spokeswoman.

Farinas said his hunger strike was also to demand the release of 33
political prisoners who are in poor health.

Cuban hunger striker unconscious, hospitalized - Florida AP -
MiamiHerald.com (3 March 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/03/1510399/cuban-hunger-striker-unconscious.html

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