Cuban activist Vladimir Alejo Miranda is suffering terrible pain, his health declining because of a hunger strike he started in early July to demand the return of some items seized by authorities and to protest human rights conditions on the island. His urinary and intestinal systems are a mess, and his lips have become infected where in order to show his determination, he used a needle to sew his mouth shut.
But through it all Alejo has remained loyal to his supporters and fellow activists, to the likely detriment of his health.
Alejo, a former political prisoner, spent a couple of nights last week in a hospital but left after security officials blocked him from receiving visits from non-family members, according to a report posted at Misceláneas de Cuba.
"If my brothers in the cause cannot visit me, I, too, will stay here not one minute more," Alejo said.
There are some very legitimate criticisms of the use of hunger strikes against the Castro dictatorship, starting with the fact that the regime very seldom is swayed by the method of protest — especially if it feels no one is paying attention. Also, the cause of Cuban freedom does not need more martyrs, it needs men with the courage demonstrated by Alejo to live and carry on the fight.
But it is important to remember that a Cuban who resorts to such desperate measures does so because he holds no weapons against the regime other than his mind, his heart and his soul. That is, his life.
Hunger strikers go to such extremes because that is the only way to match the extremes to which the regime goes to repress and oppress those Cubans who dare challenge it.
Alejo's willingness to place his life on the line on behalf of himself and his fellow freedom fighters makes him a hero.
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