Cuban prisoner of conscience declares hunger strike, dissidents protest for his release

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Jose Daniel Ferrer, a human rights activist and independent journalist in Cuba, has declared a hunger strike in protest of his unjust imprisonment. Ferrer was one of the Group of 75 arrested during Cuba’s Black Spring of 2003, and he is now once again a prisoner of conscience of the Castro dictatorship. Arrested earlier this month, Ferrer has been jailed without charges for more than three weeks and has no other options than to declare a hunger strike to pressure the Cuban regime to release him.

The Miami Herald has the report:

Wife of top Cuban dissident says he launched hunger strike to protest his imprisonment

Cuba’s most aggressive dissident, José Daniel Ferrer García, freed only last spring after eight years in prison, has declared a hunger strike to protest his three weeks in police custody without charges, his wife reported Monday.

Ferrer’s wife, Belkis Cantillo, told human rights activists that during her visit to Ferrer in a state security interrogation center in eastern Santiago de Cuba he told her, “they are killing me slowly” before a guard abruptly cut off the visit.

The dissident quickly shouted that he was going on a hunger strike, said Havana human rights activists Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, who noted that Cantillo telephoned him around 1 p.m. Monday, shortly after the prison visit.

Cantillo’s home and cellular phones appeared to be blocked, and El Nuevo Herald could contact her as of late Monday, but blogger Yoani Sánchez also Tweeted that Cantillo had reported her husband’s hunger strike.

Ferrer, 41, has been a thorn in the communist government’s side over the past year, organizing almost weekly protest marches in his hometown of Palmarito del Cauto and nearby Palma Soriano, 18 miles from Santiago, which drew unusually harsh police crackdowns.

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Pedazos de la Isla has a report on the protests by dissidents currently taking place on the island calling for the release of Ferrer and other political prisoners in Cuba:

Pots and Pans Demonstrations, Marches, Strikes Demand Freedom for Jose Daniel Ferrer and Other Political Prisoners

As the Cuban regime increasingly violates the rights of democracy activists on the island, the members of the Resistance, or opposition, have also increased their civic actions and demonstrations in demand of not only their rights, but the rights of all Cubans, especially those who are behind bars for defending the idea of freedom.  During this past week (and weekend), a number of dissidents throughout the island have carried out different kinds of protests- from pots and pan demonstrations to strikes- demanding the release from prison of various political prisoners/detainees, among them Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia (arrested on April 2nd after the political police raided his home), Jorge Vazquez Chaviano (detained on March 27th as he was trying to travel to Havana from Santa Clara to assist the Papal Mass), Niurka Luque Alvarez (a Lady in White who was arrested on March 16th while she protested against a forced eviction in Havana) and Sonia Garro Alfonso (arrested after being shot at by police agents with rubber bullets).

Continue reading HERE.

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