Guillermo Farinas, a Cuban dissident who gained international renown after staging a long hunger strike last year, was detained Wednesday while trying to block the eviction of a woman from a home in the central city of Santa Clara, his mother said.
Farinas and other opposition leaders were taken into custody as they tried to prevent authorities from carrying out the eviction orders, his mother Alicia Hernandez told The Associated Press. The woman was apparently living in the home without proper authorization.
"He was arrested by the police, along with a group of people," Hernandez said.
An independent Cuban human rights leader, Elizardo Sanchez, said more than 12 people were detained in the roundup.
Opposition figures are frequently detained by authorities, often to be released within hours or a few days.
Hernandez said she had not been able to speak to her son by phone, but had sent him a coat and some medicine through a relative. She said she had no idea when he or the others would be released.
There was no immediate reaction or confirmation from the Cuban government. Authorities rarely comment on the dissidents, except to say that they consider all to be common criminals and mercenaries paid by Washington to make trouble.
Farinas, 49, staged a 134-day hunger strike last year to draw attention to the plight of activists, social critics and opposition leaders in Cuban jails. He was awarded the European Parliament's annual human rights prize, but Cuban authorities refused to grant him permission to travel to Strasbourg, France, to receive the award.
Farinas has held more than 20 hunger strikes in the past 15 years, and has been jailed repeatedly for dissident activities on charges including disrespecting authority, public disorder and assault against a suspected undercover government informant.
Cuba is in the midst of releasing many of the 52 jailed dissidents whose cause Farinas championed, following a deal with the Roman Catholic Church. Just 11 remain behind bars, and church officials say they are optimistic the government will soon make good on a promise to release them.
The Cuban authorities have confirmed that Guillermo Fariñas, who was awarded the EU's 'free thought' prize in October, would not be allowed to leave the country to receive the award in person at a ceremony in the European Parliament tomorrow afternoon.
Cuban dissident Fariñas was unveiled as the winner of the European Parliament's 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the EU assembly's president, Jerzy Buzek, on 21 October.
"Regrettably, Mr. Fariñas is experiencing problems leaving the country, even though I made a personal appeal in a letter to the president of Cuba, Mr. Raul Castro. If Guillermo Fariñas were to leave in the next few hours, he could still be here in time to receive his prize," said Buzek yesterday evening.
But those hopes were dashed later that night after the Cuban authorities refused to grant Fariñas permission to leave the island, meaning that the accolade will instead by awarded to an empty chair.
Back in October, Buzek was optimistic that the Cuban dissident would be allowed to make the trip. "I hope to hand over the award to him in person, here in Strasbourg, in December, which would be a tremendous moment for the European Parliament and for all Cuban prisoners of conscience," he said then.
Possible impact on EU-Cuba relations
It remains unclear whether the Castro regime's decision not to allow Fariñas will impact upon EU-Cuba relations. "We expect that Lady Ashton will take due note of these problems and that she will take this into account in future relations with Cuba," said President Buzek yesterday.
He was echoed by French MEP Joseph Daul, chairman of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), in urging Ashton to take into account Cuba's decision not to let him travel in any future evaluation of the EU's relations with the island.
"The European Parliament and the EU should join forces with those who are fighting for freedom in Cuba rather than follow the script provided by the La Habana regime," Daul said.
"The absence of Guillermo Fariñas from the ceremony of the 2010 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought this Wednesday in Strasbourg means that nothing has changed in Cuba," added Daul, whose EPP group was instrumental in convincing the Parliament to award Fariñas the prize.
In February Fariñas – a supporter of non-violent protest and vocal critic of the Castro regime – started his 23rd hunger strike, calling for the liberation of 26 political prisoners who were ill after many years in detention. He ended his 135-day fast on 8 July after the Catholic Church had intervened to secure the liberation of 52 political dissidents.
Fariñas has spent over 11 years in prison over the course of his life and is the founder of the 'Cubanacan Press', an independent press agency which informed the world of the destiny of political prisoners in Cuba until the authorities shut it down.
'Fundamental freedoms' denied
"The fact that Guillermo Fariñas has not received the necessary permission to travel out of the island and come to Strasbourg to receive the award proves that the Castro brothers' dictatorship continues to deny fundamental freedoms," EPP chair Daul said yesterday.
The Sakharov Prize, consisting of a certificate and a cheque for €50,000, will be awarded in absentia at a ceremony in Strasbourg at 1pm tomorrow afternoon. MEPs will symbolically leave empty the chair on which Fariñas was due to sit before delivering his acceptance speech.
Guillermo Fariñas
Tomorrow will not be the first time the prize has been awarded in absentia. In 2008, Chinese dissident Hu Jia was given the accolade but was unable to receive it as he was in jail in China. In his absence, his wife spoke to MEPs during their plenary session in Strasbourg via video link from Beijing, where she was being held under house arrest.
Positions
"The combat of Guillermo Fariñas is and will be an example for all people who fight for freedoms and democracy and the fact that he will not be allowed to come to Strasbourg shows that the European Parliament made the right choice, as the Sakharov Prize has been created to honour exceptional people like Andrei Sakharov who have suffered in the fight against intolerance, fanaticism and dictatorship," said French MEP Joseph Daul, chair of the centre-right European People's Party, upon hearing the news.
A group of EPP MEPs backing Fariñas' nomination said his "struggle has been, and still is, a shining example for all defenders of freedom and democracy," while Spanish EPP member José Ignacio Salafranca described Fariñas as "the epitome of someone defending peaceful resistance".
Next Steps
15 Dec.: Guillermo Fariñas to be officially awarded Sakharov Prize in Strasbourg.
Guillermo farinas during his 135-day hunger strike earlier this year
The European parliament has awarded its
prestigious Sakharov human rights prize to Cuban dissident Guillermo
Farinas, parliamentary sources told AFP.
"The Sakharov winner is Guillermo Farinas," a source said on condition of anonymity.
The
48-year-old journalist and psychologist has often used hunger strikes,
putting his own health at risk, as a means of protest to achieve greater
freedoms in the Communist island of Cuba.
Farinas is the third
Cuban to receive the prize, after Oswaldo Paya in 2002 and the Ladies in
White group of women whose husbands are jailed in Cuba, which received
the award in 2005.
European parliament president Jerzy Buzek will
officially announce Farinas as the winner of the Sakharov Prize later on
Thursday. The award will be presented to the winner on December 15.
The 22nd Sakharov Prize, named after late Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, comes with a cash award of E50,000 ($A70,932).
Ethiopian
opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa and Israeli rights group Breaking
the Silence had also been on the shortlist for this year's award.
The
decision to give this year's award to Farinas came four days before
European Union foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg to discuss the
27-nation bloc's relations with Cuba.
Spain's Socialist government
wants the EU to normalise relations with Cuba, a position opposed by
the Czech Republic and Slovakia, former communist bloc countries.
The
EU's "common position" at present is to insist that Cuba make progress
on human rights and democracy before ties are normalised.
Farinas
held a 135-day hunger strike earlier this year that left him near death
but compelled the Cuban government to agree to release 52 political
prisoners.
Another fast between 1995 and 1997 brought attention to his allegations of corruption at the hospital where he worked.
He
also carried out a six-month hunger strike in 2006, but that time he
failed to force the government to allow freer access to the Internet.
