Juan HerreraI agree with Cuban dissident leader Oswaldo Paya: Hunger strikes and other similar demonstrations — such as imprisoned journalist Juan Carlos Herrera's decision to sew his mouth shut — should be avoided, because they put the lives of the protesters at risk. Regardless of the brutality of their jailers, protest by suicide, or self-mutiliation, is not acceptable.
Paya, according to a story posted at BosNewsLife.com, said he pleaded in October with Herrera to not sew his mouth.
Oswaldo Paya"I asked him not to do it — I am not ashamed to say that I begged it of him — telling him that it is us who still have the opportunity to speak out," Paya said. "I warned him that I was not going to support that (and) that this decision is against the will of all his brothers and that he does not have to go to such extremes ... (Because) we would denounce the violations that he and many other prisoners are suffering."
But Paya did not condemn Herrera, and cautioned others to not judge the prisoner for the extreme of his protest. Instead, people need to examine their own consciences, Paya said.
"(B)efore daring to judge him, (Christians and others) should ask themselves: 'What have I done in the face of this horror that so many human beings live through day to day in Cuban jails?'" (emphasis added)
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