Opponents Accuse Castro Of Letting Guillermo Farinas Die On Hunger Strike

Opponents Accuse Castro Of Letting Guillermo Farinas Die On Hunger
Strike / 14ymedio

EFE (via 14ymedio) – The Cuban National Congress (ENC), which consists
of 65 opposition organizations inside and outside the island, said today
of the dissident Guillermo Fariñas, 54, who is on a hunger strike, that
if the Cuban government "lets him die" it will have committed
"premeditated murder."

In a press conference in Miami to present the results of the ENC's
second meeting held in Puerto Rico last month, several members of the
organization's recently created Coordinating Board stressed that all
their attention is focused on Fariñas, leader of the United
Anti-Totalitarian Forum (FANTU), and they asked the international
community to exert pressure to save his life.

Fariñas, a resident of Santa Clara in central Cuba, has been on a hunger
and thirst strike for 49 days to demand that Raul Castro's government
end its repression of peaceful dissent and open a dialog with the
opposition, according to reports from other opposition members.

"We need him alive for the future of Cuba," Guillermo Toledo, ENC's
general coordinator for liaison representing Cuban exiles, said today.

Toledo, who lives in Puerto Rico, as well as Ramon Saul Sanchez and
Julio Shiling, also members of the ENC Coordinating Board, stressed that
Fariñas' state is "serious" and could become "critical" at any time.

The Cuban government periodically gives Fariñas emergency rehydration
treatment and returns him to his home a few hours later, opponents said.

"Fariñas needs intensive care in a hospital," Toleda said, adding that
the fact of having to move him every time he loses consciousness amounts
to "premeditated murder."

Given the situation, Alice Fariñas, daughter of the dissident, intends
to launch an international "SOS" for her father on Friday.

Source: Opponents Accuse Castro Of Letting Guillermo Farinas Die On
Hunger Strike / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/opponents-accuse-castro-of-letting-guillermo-farinas-die-on-hunger-strike-14ymedio/