Famed Dissident Arrested and Beaten

BY: THE HILL

at 7:35 AM Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Cuban pro-democracy leader Guillermo Farinas was brutally beaten and arrested yesterday, as he tried to visit with two fellow dissidents on a hunger strike in the central city of Santa Clara.

Farinas was awarded the European Union's 2010 Sakharov Human Rights prize, pursuant to a 135-day hunger strike for the release of Cuban political prisoners.

He was trying to visit with Rolando Ferrer Espinosa and Alcides Rivera Rodríguez, who have been on a hunger strike for more than 32-days seeking an end to the Castro regime's violence against pro-democracy activists.