MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Europe drafts condemnation of Castro brothers regime human rights policy

Cuban dissident on hunger strike Guillermo Fariñas at the heart of the controversy

Cuban dissident on hunger strike to protest against the detention of 26 ailing political prisoners has said he is “ready to die,” a Mexican newspaper has reported. “I am aware that I am in the last days of my life,” Guillermo Fariñas told the Reforma newspaper.

On Tuesday, Fariñas rejected an offer of an asylum in Spain, saying he would continue the protest until the political prisoners were released or he died.

Fariñas began his hunger strike on February 24, after another hunger striker, Zapata Tamayo, died in prison.

Cuba's Communist leadership has denounced the 48-year-old Fariñas as a US stooge and spy, and described his protest as blackmail. He was admitted to hospital on March 4 after passing out, where doctors apparently force-fed him.

Cuba’s Granma newspaper accused Fariñas of being an agent for the United States or European interests and said the country “which has demonstrated many times its respect for human life and dignity, will not accept pressure or blackmail.”

The death of Tamayo, a 42-year-old bricklayer and member of the group Republican Alternative, provoked an international outcry over the human rights record of Cuba's Castro brothers regime, along with calls for the release of an estimated 200 political prisoners held in Cuban jails.

The Havana government denies holding any political prisoners.

From Paris the French Foreign Affairs ministry said in a release that “We are increasingly concerned about the health status of the Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who is very weak as a result of the hunger strike that he began in order to demand the release of all political prisoners.

“We are issuing a solemn appeal to the Cuban authorities following the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo just a few days ago.
“The Cuban authorities must urgently release all political prisoners especially those whose state of health has seriously deteriorated”.

Meantime the European Parliament opened a debate on the human rights situation in Cuba following the death of Orlando Zapata. Apparently there is consensus in the political arch to strongly condemn the Castro brothers’ regime for the “avoidable and cruel death” of Zapata and the attempt to impede the family from holding a funeral.

The European Parliament is also ironing out a clause calling on European institutions to “extend unconditional support and encourage with no reserves the beginning of a peaceful political transition process towards a multi-party democracy in Cuba”.

During the debate Euro-Socialist MP Antonio Masip criticized what he defined as the “merciless” attitude of the Castro regime towards Cuban conscience prisoners, which makes him recall “the last months of moribund (Spanish) dictator Francisco Franco and his ill-treatment of political prisoners”.

“It’s a long time since Fidel Castro and his oligarchy put an end to the ideals of the Cuban revolution that so much echo and illusions triggered in so many peoples of the world”, said Masip.

“What now characterizes the dictatorship of the Castro brothers is its lack of mercy towards political and conscience prisoners, and the same lack of piety towards its own people. It reminds me of moribund Franco, with the same ill treatment towards political prisoners he considered ordinary criminals, and that same obsessive despicable attitude towards exiles”, said the EU MP.

Finally he forecasted Castro will come to an end as happened with Franco in Spain “as with all those enemies of freedom and human rights that wield power. Europe must show solidarity with all those committed to democracy, freedom and human rights”.