Reuters reports that Cuban hunger striker Guillermo Fariñas has rejected the Spanish government’s latest offer to take him to Spain to head off another dissident death that could worsen Cuba’s relations with the international community.
Some of his fellow Cuban dissidents have asked the European Union and Latin American countries to beseech Fariñas, 48, to end his protest, but he says he is prepared to die if the Cuban government does not meet his demand to release 26 ailing political prisoners.
Fariñas, a psychologist and writer, launched his hunger strike on February 24, a day after dissident prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died following an 85-day hunger strike for improved prison conditions.
He has been in a hospital in his hometown of Santa Clara, 170 miles southeast of Havana, receiving fluids intravenously since collapsing on March 11. His condition is said to be weak, but stable.
A Spanish diplomat offered over the weekend to send Fariñas to Spain by air ambulance, Fariñas’ mother, Alicia Hernandez, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“He said he appreciated the offer, but he did not want to be exiled to Spain,” she said.
A Spanish Embassy spokesman declined to comment.
Zapata’s death brought international condemnation of Cuba, which said it provided him the best care possible, and calls for the communist-led island to release its estimated 200 political prisoners.
Reportedly at Havana’s request, the Spaniards, who currently lead the 27-nation EU, tried before to persuade Fariñas to go to Spain, but he turned them down.
The latest offer followed requests last week from Cuban dissidents, who have said they do not support hunger strikes, said western diplomats in the Cuban capital.
Elizardo Sanchez, of the independent Cuban Human Rights Commission, said his group has encouraged “discreet diplomatic gestures” by European Union and Latin American countries to end Fariñas’strike.
Fariñas has refused both food and liquids during his protest and has collapsed twice since it began.
Cuban officials and doctors have urged him to abandon the hunger strike and are keeping him in the hospital for treatment.
Fariñas has conducted 22 previous hunger strikes which have taken a toll on his body.
His mother said he suffered a high fever over the weekend, but was feeling better on Monday.
Cuban leaders view dissidents as U.S.-backed subversives trying to topple the Cuban government.
At least two other dissidents are known to have begun hunger strikes after Fariñas, and the dissident group “Ladies in White” held marches for a week to mark the anniversary of the arrest of 75 government opponents on March 18, 2003. The highly respected Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) reports there were 208 prisoners in Cuban jails who have been accused of political activity. This number includes 13 peaceful dissidents arrested mid-2009 and 25 prisoners sentenced in 2008 for political activity. At the end of November 2009, of the 75 persons arrested during the 2003 “Black Spring” crackdown, 53 remain incarcerated.