MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Relatives of Cuban political prisoner Zapata Tamayo leave with his ashes for Miami

Zapata dies after an 85-day hunger strike

The body of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, whose death by hunger strike last year provoked international criticism of Cuba was exhumed for cremation Tuesday, his family said, enabling them to take his remains when they emigrate to the United States.

A small gathering of family members and fellow dissidents shouted “Zapata lives” and “Freedom for the Cuban people” as a priest prayed when his coffin was opened in a cemetery in the eastern city of Banes, his mother Reina Luisa Tamayo told.

“The exhumation was brief. They opened the box so I could see it. My son was still intact,” she said. “It is a very deep pain.”

Zapata, who was serving a long jail sentence for crimes such as disobedience and contempt, died on Feb. 23, 2010, after an 85-day hunger strike to demand improved prison conditions.

The Cuban government said he was nothing more than a common criminal, but his death brought condemnation of Cuba's human rights situation from the United States and Europe and contributed to Cuba's decision to release its political prisoners.

The Cuban government has agreed to let a dozen members of his family, including his mother, leave for the United States, but she insisted she would not go without the remains of her son.

The body and family members were to travel by bus today to Havana, where Zapata's body was to be cremated Tamayo said.

The family is scheduled to leave with his ashes on Thursday for Miami, centre of the Cuban exile community in the United States.