Hunger striker willing to face´final consequences´

A Cuban dissident vowed to continue with a hunger strike to demand the release of sick political prisoners.

MADRID, March 3, 2010 (AFP) - A Cuban dissident vowed Wednesday to go ahead with a hunger strike "until the final consequences" to demand the release of sick political prisoners, in an interview with a Spanish newspaper.

"Yes, I can die. The time has come for the world to realize that this government is cruel. There are moments in the history of a country when there must be martyrs," Guillermo Farinas told the El Pais daily.

Farinas, 48, launched his protest in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara following the death on February 23 of leading Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, 42, at a Havana hospital on the 85th day of a hunger strike.

Zapata had been refusing food in protest at jail conditions. His death marked the first time in nearly 40 years a Cuban activist starved himself to death to protest against government abuses.

"I have taken over, and when I die, someone else will. I will continue until the final consequences," said Farinas, adding his goal was to make the Cuban government "pay a high political price for Orlando Zapata's assassination."

"Then if the authorities are not cruel and inhumane, that they free the political prisoners who are sick and who could shortly become another Zapata. That if I die, the world realises that the government lets its opponents die.

"I think the government will not change. I am not hopeful. The Cuban government is clinging to power, it is facing a difficult moment, they are not going to change until there are 50 opponents on a hunger strike, that would be a problem for the whole society," said Farinas.

A journalist who was trained as a psychologist, Farinas has gone on hunger strike 20 times and has been jailed three times for opposing the Americas' only one-party Communist regime.

Two other Cuban political prisoners have launched a hunger strike in addition to Farinas in the wake of Zapata's death, according to El Pais.

Zapata's mother has charged that her son was tortured and called his death "premeditated murder."

Current President Raul Castro said last week in a rare official statement that bordered on an apology that he "regrets" Zapata's death, but denied all charges of repression.

Cuban dissident groups say there are more than 200 political prisoners, of whom 65 are deemed prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.

Cuba denies that there are any political prisoners and calls dissidents "mercenaries" in the pay of the United States.