Rolando Ferrer Espinosa and Alcides Rivera Rodríguez.
You need to get to know them right away, before they die, before they become two more Cubans who lose their lives at the hands of the Castro dictatorship.
Ferrer and Rivera last week were hospitalized, suffering the effects of hunger strikes they started more than a month ago to demand the regime halt its abuse of peaceful activists.
They are fully aware of the consequences of their protests, but their condition is being aggravated by at best, the benign neglect of the regime, as other activists are complaining that Ferrer and Rivera are not receiving needed medical care. In light of what happened recently to Dama De Blanco Laura Pollan after she was admitted to a hospital that is not a meritless worry.
The Castro dictatorship does not care if Ferrer and Rivera live or die, but given their druthers they would prefer the latter. No one, the regime figures, will care enough to make it pay for their deaths.
Other activists, however, are working to disabuse the dictatorship of that notion, gathering at the hospital and using other means to inform the world about what is happening in order to save their lives. For example, human rights activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" is taking to Twitter to update the world on the latest developments, including an announcement that some 50 dissidents have signed a letter asking Cardinal Jaime Ortega to intercede on behalf of Ferrer and Rivera.
Considering Ortega's proclivity toward believing the best of the regime, that may be futile. But such campaigns, to inform the world about Ferrer and Rivera's protest, may be the best hope to save their lives.
Please join them in their campaign by spreading the names Rolando Ferrer Espinosa and Alcides Rivera Rodriguez
UPDATED, 4:50 p.m. EDT -- The Assembly of Cuban Resistance just tweeted that Antunez and his wife Yris Perez Aguilera have been beaten and arrested outside the hospital.
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