I'd rather Cuban political prisoners not go on hunger strikes — protest by suicide is still suicide, and Cuba needs these men to live. But there is no denying that sometimes, they actually work in improving their living conditions in prison and forcing their captors to provide them with at least a modicum of respect.
Three prisoners at the El Guyabo prison on the Isle of Youth Pines scored a victory against the Castro dictatorship when prison and Interior Ministry officials recently agreed to respond to the demands of three political prisoners on hunger strike, Rolando Jiménez Pozada, Fabio Prieto Llorente and Fidel Francisco Rangel Sánchez.
Jiménez's wife, the independent journalist Lamasiel Gutiérrez, reported that "in an unprecedented move," officials agreed to return to Rangel items guards had seized from his cell, which sparked his hunger strike, and promised Jiménez and Prieto that they would not be abused in any way.
Prieto started his protest after he was thrown into a punishment cell, and Jiménez went on hunger strike to protest the death of fellow political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo on Feb. 23.
The prisoners have ended their respective protests, but they are not fooled by dictatorship's apparent concessions. Clearly, according to Gutiérrez's report, officials are feeling the pressure of the international attention generated by Zapata's death and the possibly impending visit of a United Nations human rights official to Cuba.
The dictatorship, Jiménez told his wife, does not want another prisoner to die.
But if officials renege on their promises, the prisoners are ready to resume their hunger strikes, according to the report, which was posted at Misceláneas de Cuba.
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The victory at El Guyabo prison is not the prisoners' alone. It is rightfully shared by everyone, in Cuba and in exile, who have devoted any amount of time or energy to exposing the reality of Cuba today.
In addition to moral considerations, hunger strikes by Cuban political prisoners are unfortunate because in most instances, they are making demands of a dictatorship that by instinct, doesn't care if they live or die. You can't negotiate with such barbarity.
In the two months since Zapata died, however, the world has been paying more attention to human rights in Cuba, especially behind the bars of the Castro gulag, and holding the dictatorship accountable for what is happening.
That attention has revealed to more of the world the horrors of the Castro gulag.
That attention has emboldened prisoners to use the only weapon at their disposal — their lives — to up the pressure on the dictatorship. They know they are not alone in their fight.
That attention — at least at El Guyabo prison — has forced the dictatorship to address the hunger strikers' demands.
For the cause of freedom in Cuba, that is a major victory.
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