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Washington, Europe condemn death of Cuba dissident

24 February 2010 20:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The United States joined in condemning Cuba’s communist government over the death of a jailed dissident after a long hunger strike, saying on Wednesday that his case shines a spotlight on the island’s incarceration of some 200 political prisoners, APA reports quoting Associated Press.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo, jailed since 2003 on charges including disrespecting authority, died Tuesday at a hospital in the capital. Fellow dissidents say he had been on a weekslong hunger strike, becoming the first opposition figure to die in jail in recent memory.
In life, he was not one of the island’s leading dissident voices. In death, his plight has quickly far beyond Cuba.
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. government was "deeply saddened" to hear of Zapata Tamayo’s death. He said that U.S. diplomats who were in Havana last week for migration talks had raised the case with their Cuban counterparts.
"Mr. Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s death highlights the injustice of Cuba’s holding more than 200 political prisoners who should now be released without delay," Crowley said.
Cuba has not had any comment on Tamayo’s death. The government describes the dissidents as paid stooges both of Washington and anti-Castro exiles in South Florida. It says Washington greatly exaggerates their numbers and influence as a way of justifying its 48-year embargo on the island.
When the visiting U.S. diplomats held a reception for about 40 dissidents last week, Cuba put out an angry statement, saying the meeting proved that Washington is out to overthrow the government.
Latin American governments had little immediate reaction to Zapata Tamayo’s death, but Spain said it was shocked and angered.
"The Spanish government profoundly deplores the death of Orlando; the death of a human rights defender in Cuba," Deputy Prime Minister Manuel Chaves said Wednesday. "There is a deficit of human rights in that country."
Mariano Rajoy, leader of the opposition Popular Party, sent a telegram to Zapata’s mother.
"The death of Orlando Zapata symbolizes the commitment of the Cuban people to liberty and dignity and is an admirable example of dedication for democrats throughout the world," he said.
Spain’s strong reaction is notable, since its socialist government has been seeking to improve relations with the government of President Raul Castro since it took over the EU presidency in January.
In Cuba, veteran dissidents were joined by a relatively new voice: the son of revolutionary hero Juan Almeida Bosque, who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the guerrilla uprising that brought down dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and was revered until his death in September.
Juan Juan Almeida Garcia posted an open letter to Raul Castro on his daughter’s Facebook page Wednesday, urging the Cuban president to resign.
"Doesn’t Zapata Tamayo’s death make you embarrassed?" he asked. "Must we go to such extremes? ... I beg of you to resign. Get out of this country. You don’t deserve respect."
The younger Almeida has run afoul of authorities for some time, most recently in November when he was briefly jailed. He has been petitioning the government for permission to travel to the United States for treatment for a painful, progressive form of spinal arthritis.
The British Embassy in Havana also expressed concern, though it did not mention Zapata Tamayo’s case specifically.
"We remain worried about human rights abuses and due legal process in Cuba and continue to call for the release of all political prisoners," said Chris Stimpson, an official at the embassy.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, told the Associated Press that Zapata Tamayo was arrested in 2003 and held for months without charge before being sentenced to three years in prison in his native Holguin province for disrespecting police authority.
Tamayo, a 42-year-old builder, was subsequently sentenced to 25 years for activism behind bars, Sanchez said, and was deemed by Amnesty International a "prisoner of conscience." He was one of a small number of Afro-Cubans in the island’s tiny dissident community
As of January, Sanchez’s commission counted 201 political prisoners in Cuban jails. Cuba says it holds none.
Sanchez said Zapata Tamayo stopped accepting solid food on Dec. 3, drinking only water and a few liquids, some of which were forced on him by authorities. He was transferred to Kilo 8 Prison in Camaguey and placed in solitary confinement, where he continued to refuse solids, Sanchez said.
As his health deteriorated, Zapata Tamayo was taken to Havana’s Combinado del Este prison earlier this month, where he received some treatment in a lockup clinic, then was transferred to Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras the day before his death.
"It’s a terrible blow to us all," said Sanchez. He said family members planned a funeral service later Wednesday in Zapata Tamayo’s hometown of Banes on the northern coast of Holguin province in eastern Cuba.
Sanchez said authorities in that province, as well as in the nearby provinces of Santiago and Guantanamo, had detained dozens of activists, preventing some from attending funeral services â€” but that claim could not be immediately be confirmed with police or the government.
In Havana, a well-known dissident group, the "Ladies in White," held a small gathering in Zapata Tamayo’s honor at the home of one of their founders, Laura Pollan.