Time to end 'dictatorship' in Cuba: Sakharov winner Farinas
AFP
October 22, 2010
SANTA CLARA, Cuba — Political dissident Guillermo Farinas on Thursday dedicated the Sakharov human rights prize awarded to him by the European Parliament to the people of Cuba struggling for an "end to the dictatorship."
The 48-year-old independent journalist and psychologist has gone on hunger strike 23 times to press for greater freedom in the communist-ruled island, most notably for 135 days following the February 23 death of fellow dissident Orlando Zapata.
He ended his protest when President Raul Castro authorized the release of 52 political prisoners following talks with senior Catholic Church clerics in Havana.
"The civilized world, the European Parliament, is sending a message to the Cuban governing class that it's time for democracy and freedom of thought and expression in Cuba, an end to the dictatorship," said Farinas, speaking from his home in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara.
The award "was not for Guillermo Farinas," he told AFP, "but rather for the Cuban people, who for the past 50 years have been struggling to get out of this dictatorship."
Showing the physical signs of 23 hunger strikes against the Cuban regime, the still-emaciated rights activist got word of his award at his home some 270 kilometers (170 miles) east of Havana
Everyone "who aspires for democracy in any part of the planet with their solidarity and calls for the release of (political) prisoners also deserves and has contributed to this award," said the rights campaigner known as "Coco" to his friends and family.
Farinas is the third Cuban recipient of the prize, after Oswaldo Paya in 2002 and the Ladies in White, a group of women whose husbands are jailed, which received the award in 2005.
"Farinas ... is an example of dignity, a man that has been willing to give his life for the freedom of political prisoners and who has never surrendered in his struggle," said Laura Pollan, the head of the Ladies in White.
"He is an example for all," Pollan said.
The Cuban government "should take note that by giving this award," said another leading dissident, Elizardo Sanchez, the European Parliament "is reflecting the concern that exists in the international community over the unfavorable condition of human rights in Cuba. We cannot go on this way any more," Sanchez told AFP.
Political dissident Vladimiro Roca said he was happy for Farinas, but warned that awards like this "are more symbolic than anything, and will not result in a change of attitude from the government."
Roca even said he feared that repression against political dissidents would increase.
The son of two fervent pro-Castro revolutionaries, Farinas was a member of the Union of Communist Youth, an embassy guard, and a member of Cuba's elite Special Forces. In the early 1980s he spent nearly a year with a Cuban military unit fighting in Angola.
Farinas was sent to the ex-Soviet Union for advanced military training, but was injured and allowed to leave the army.
He went to college, and graduated with a degree in psychology in 1988.
His neighbors in Santa Clara were cautious about acknowledging an award certain to rankle the Communist officials in Havana.
"I haven't been keeping abreast" of developments related to the award, said one neighbor Juan Carlos Diaz.
But Emilio Sardui was among the neighbors daring to express delight about the award given to their neighbor and friend, calling it a "well deserved recognition" of Farinas's sacrifices over the years.
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