In their continuing struggle against their captors, Cuba's political prisoners sometimes resort to the only real weapon they have: Their lives, in the form of hunger strikes, to demand that their human rights be honored and respected. Cuba needs these men to live, but it is easy to understand why they are willing to die.
Radio Martí reports that two more political prisoners, Egberto Ángel Escobedo Morales and Lamberto Hernández Plana, over the weekend started hunger strikes.
Escobedo, who survived a lengthy hunger strike earlier this year, quit eating to protest the poor living conditions he suffers and to demand the release of all political prisoners. The recent release of almost 40 prisoners under an agreement between Spain, the Catholic Church and Castro dictatorship will not suffice, said Escobedo, who is serving a 20-year sentenced to "espionage" handed down in 1995.
"Today, Sept. 26, I declared a hunger strike in protest against all the maneuvers Cuban government is doing with the Spanish government and the Catholic Church. I am demanding the release of all political prisoners and protesting living conditions in prison, the abuses, the violations of human rights and I am protesting because I am not receiving needed medical attention," Escobedo said.
Hernández's demands are more personal.
A veteran prison protester, Hernández started a hunger strike on Sept. 25 to demand a transfer to a prison closer to his home in Havana. Just before the start of his protest, authorities moved Hernández, who has served half of a 12-year sentence, from a prison in Matanzas to a dungeon in Camagüey, according to Radio Martí.
Keeping political prisoners away from their families is one of the innumerable ways the dictatorship tortures its captives.
The dictatorship does not care whether its prisoners live or die, only that it not be embarrassed by their acts of resistance. Hopefully, though, these prisoners' courage will be rewarded with some semblance of justice.
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