Two More Dissidents on Hunger Strike

Por LoriG Hoy a las 8:50 pm

According to the EFE:

Two More Cuban Dissidents on Hunger Strike

HAVANA – Two dissidents, one of them behind bars, have joined Guillermo Fariñas in a hunger strike, the unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation said Tuesday.

Franklin Pelegrino on Tuesday has been fasting for 30 days at his home in the eastern province of Holguin, while dissident prisoner Darsi Ferrer announced 10 days ago that he was beginning a hunger strike, commission spokesman Elizardo Sanchez said in a statement.

With Pelegrino and Ferrer, now three dissidents are on hunger strikes in Cuba, since Fariñas has been fasting for more than a month to demand that Gen. Raul Castro's government release 26 ailing political detainees.

Fariñas, 48, began his fast on Feb. 24, following the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo after an 85-day hunger strike.

Zapata's death spurred at least a dozen political prisoners and members of the opposition to begin similar protests, though all of them called off their fasts after a few days.

Pelegrino is a "defender of human rights" who "on Tuesday completes 30 days of a hunger strike, at home, in support of Fariñas' demand," Sanchez said Tuesday.

In the case of Ferrer, a physician, the commission said that he was "recently named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International" and began fasting on March 20 at Valle Grande prison in Havana.

He adds that Ferrer's protest is taking place for the "poor stomatological treatment he receives and the violation of his right to due process, since he has been in jail without trial or any formal charges brought against him since July 21, 2009."