After 85 days on hunger strike, Cuban political prisoner dies

By Leonard Doyle on February 23, 2010 7:58 PM | 0 Comments | Category: Cuba
Update: Yoani Sanchez interviews lando Zapata's mother - (see below)

Orlando_Zapata.jpg
Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an Amnesty International prisoner of Conscience, died today after 85 days on hunger strike, during which he was brutalized and force-fed, family members said.

    

"We can consider it a judicial assasination," announced Elizardo Sanchez,  president of Cuba's Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission


Zapata's death marks the first time in 40 years  that a Cuban political prisoner has succumbed during a hunger protest and his death was expected to a trigger wave of political unrest on the Communist ruled island. 


 


"The death of my son was premeditated murder, 
may he rest in peace, and may the Castro dictatorship be held to account for his death," h
is mother,  Reina Luisa Tamayo, said.


Zapata died between 15.30 and 1600 local time the Spanish news agency Efe reported. 
Not since 1972 when  Pedro Luis Boitel, a poet and student leader who fought against both the Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro dictatorships starved himself to death, has an opponent of the communist government continued a hunger protest to the death.



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If anything, repression has grown worse since Raul Castro took over from his brother Fidel. The government uses a range of draconian laws to silence free speech, cripple trade unions and criminalize all forms of political dissent. Human rights defenders, bloggers, journalists and other civil leaders are subjected to violations of their rights, refused lawyers and given sham trials, according to Human Rights Watch.

In his three years in power, Raúl Castro has been just as brutal as his brother. Cubans who dare to criticize the government live in perpetual fear, knowing they could wind up in prison for merely expressing their views.

José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director Human Rights Watch

 Human rights defenders, journalists, and other civil society members tried under these laws are subjected to systematic due process violations, including abusive interrogations, the denial of legal counsel, and sham trials..

 New Castro, Same Cuba
Cuba's leader Raúl Castro's government has locked up scores of people for exercising their fundamental freedoms and allowed scores more political prisoners arrested during Fidel Castro's rule to languish in detention. Rather than dismantle Cuba's repressive machinery, Raúl Castro has kept it firmly in place and fully active.

There was little US interest in Zapata's death. The New York Times carried a brief wire service account from the Associated Press. The Miami Herald restricted itself to a few brief paragraphs. Network Television news, which can give saturation coverage to issues deemed important to US foreign policy,  ignored the death.

The American media shows little interest in political protest or human rights in Cuba, possibly because  anti government dissidents are often virulent opponents of American policy towards the island as well.  


Relatives were transporting Zapata Tamayo's remains to his hometown in Holguin province, said Roca, himself a former fighter pilot and the son of a legendary communist leader who served nearly five years in prison himself for his political beliefs.



Zapata, 42, who was serving a 25 year jail sentence on charges of "disrespecting authority, died at a clinic at Havana's Combinado del Este Prison, according to the leading dissident Vlarimiro Roca. 



Not the most prominent Cuban dissident, he was a plumber and bricklayer, before being picked up by the authorities for his activities. Initially sentenced to three years in jail, it was increased to 25 years because of his refusal to end political activism behind bars.



Zapata stopped eating solid foods  3 December  to protest what he described as repeated beatings by guards and other abuses at his prison in eastern Cuba.



He was arrested in 2003 during a government crackdown that sentenced 75 government critics to lengthy prison terms, and adopted by Amnesty as a ``prisoner of conscience'' that year.



Initially charged with contempt, public disorder and ``disobedience'' and sentenced to three years, he was convicted of other acts of defiance while in prison and sentenced to a total of 36 years.


Human Rights Watch:
Raúl Castro government has relied in particular on the Criminal Code offense of "dangerousness," which allows authorities to imprison individuals before they have committed any crime, on the suspicion that they are likely to commit an offense in the future. This "dangerousness" provision is overtly political, defining as "dangerous" any behavior that contradicts Cuba's socialist norms.

Cuba's illegal but scarcely tolerated Human Rights Commission says there are about 200 political prisoners still held in Cuba, about one-third less than when Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel.

But if anything harassment of dissidents has increased over the past year, the group says.

Cuba's illegal but tolerated Human Rights Commission says there are about 200 political prisoners still held in Cuba, about one-third less than when Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel.

But if anything harassment of dissidents has increased over the past year, the group says.
Human rights defender Rodolfo Bartelemí Coba told Human Rights Watch, "We live 24 hours a day ready to be arrested at any moment.... Sometimes they enforce [the punishment] at this moment, sometimes later, but they always enforce it when they see fit."


Cuba's Human Rights Commission says there are about 200 political prisoners still held in appalling conditions, about one-third less than when Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel.

Harassment of dissidents has increased over the past year,, however, according to Amnesty and Human Rights Watch which issued a damning report on Cuba last year. .

Cuba designates prisoners of conscience as mercenaries sympathetic to the United States.


Interview

Yoani Sanchez: We are here to express our condolences. We would like to know at what time did he pass away, what do you know about his last minutes, what are your feelings right now, and what is going to happen after he is released by the coroner?

Reina Luisa Tamayo Dangier: I am Reina Luisa Tamayo Dangier, the mother of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo who was interned in the hospital of the Habana del Este Prison. Last night he was moved to the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital where he passed away at3:00 PM.

I can tell you I feel a horrible pain, but I am holding on, enduring through this pain. I was able to be at his side until he passed away and now hope to have the courage to dress my son Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

We will leave for Banes, Holguin Province, Embarcadero road, house number six, where we will hold the wake before our family altar, at my home, for as long as required.

I want to tell the world about my pain. I think my son's death was a premeditated murder. My son was tortured throughout his incarceration. His plight has brought me great pain and has been excruciating for the entire family. Even, as he was transferred to this prison, he was first held inCamaguey without drinking water for 18 days. My son dies after an 86-day hunger strike. He is another Pedro Boitel for Cuba. [Pedro Luis Boitel died in 1972 during a hunger strike while serving a 10-year prison sentence in Cuba]

In the midst of deep pain, I call on the world to demand the freedom of the other prisoners and brothers unfairly sentenced so that what happened to my boy, my second child, who leaves behind no physical legacy, no child or wife, does not happen again. Thank you!



 

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