Two Cuban political prisoners — Randy Cabrera Mayor and Andy Frómeta Cuenca — are continuing their hunger strikes at the Boniatico prison, Santiago de Cuba, according to reports posted at Payo Libre.
Frometa, 31, started his protest Sept. 3, after prison officials took all his belongings, including his medicines. About a week earlier, he had been transferred from a prison in Guántanamo, and when he asked the reason for the transfer, he was beaten, according to a report by independent journalist José Ramón Pupo Nieves.
His hunger strike has left Cabrera physically broken, according to a report by independent journalist María Antonia Hidalgo Mir. Cabrera started his protest Aug. 23, demanding better treatment for prisoners. He currently is being held in a cell with no light nor bathroom, along with 10 common prisoners serving either life sentences or awaiting execution, according to Hidalgo's report.
The dictatorship this week detained several dozen dissidents because they were attempting to petition the government on the behalf of Cabrera, Frómeta and the other hundreds, if not thousands, of political prisoners in Fidel Castro's gulag.
Those arrested, and later released, really didn't have a choice, independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas told the Miami Herald.
"If they are going to mistreat prisoners, we have to protest. Tomorrow that could be me, and I'd want people protesting for me.''
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