Via Babalu Blog
A Patriot to Freedom
By Val Prieto, on March 3, 2010, at 9:15 am
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” –Thomas Jefferson
Orlando Zapata Tamayo is more than a martyr for a just cause. He is, and shall forever be, a patriot to freedom. Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas knows this all too well and has been on hunger strike since the death of his friend and colleague.
Reports are that Fariñas’ health has deteriorated and may very well die as a result of his hunger strike. When asked if he was willing to die as a result of this hunger strike, he stated there are times when one must die for what is right.
What an incredible human being. Coco Fariñas is a humble, peaceful warrior for that which is most important to man: liberty.
Please keep Guillermo Coco Fariñas in your thoughts and prayers. And may God bless him and grant him that which he so selflessly gives his life so that others may have.
Cuban dissident on hunger strike is rushed to hospital
By Juan O. Tamayo
Miami Herald
3/3/10
Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who has been refusing food and water for a week, lost consciousness and was rushed to a hospital Wednesday morning, one of his supporters reported.
Fariñas was in his home in Santa Clara, praying a rosary with visiting supporters, when he “suffered a strong pain in his chest and lost consciousness,” said Licet Zamora Carrandi, who described herself as a spokeswoman…
…Fariñas was one of five Cuban dissidents — the other four are in prison — who launched hunger strikes last week to protest the death of jailed hunger striker Orlando Zapata and demand the release of all political prisoners. Fariñas also has called for the release of some two dozen political prisoners reported to be in ill health,
The 48-year-old psychologist and independent journalist also has stopped drinking water despite his poor health as a result of more than 20 previous hunger strikes.
Several of the other hunger strikers later called off their protests but Fariñas told journalists Tuesday that he would persevere “until the last consequences.”
Worthless Nigger
By Val Prieto, on February 25, 2010, at 2:45 pm
Sorry if the title of this post offends you. It offends me, too. “Worthless nigger” is a term we just don’t hear all too often in this enlightened, twenty-first century world we live in. Unless, of course, you happen to be black and you happen to live in Cuba.
“Worthless nigger” might not be something your neighbors or fellow Cubans will call you in Cuba. No. “Worthless nigger” – roughly “negro de mierda” in the dialect – is a term the castro regime reserves specifically for blacks living in Cuba who understand said government’s hypocrisy with regards to race and who have the audacity to stand up for themselves as individuals and to fight for what they believe is right. In Cuba those “worthless niggers” are men like Orlando Zapata Tamayo who simply want the human dignity that real liberty affords.
On the many occasions where Orlando Zapata Tamayo was being beaten during his incarceration in Cuba, convicted and sentenced for “disrespect”, “worthless nigger” is what he heard from his captors as they bruised his body using fists, kicks, sticks, chains and anything else they could find to cause pain. Yet that “worthless nigger” remained steadfast and true to his beliefs despite the physical violence laid down upon him.
That “worthless nigger” took the blows for an entire nation, even for the ones who were assaulting him. Orlando Zapata Tamayo, “worthless nigger”, absorbed the brunt of fifty years of hatred and oppression and broken ideology. The “worthless nigger” endured all manner of injustice, all manner of inhumanity not just for his own individual liberty, but for its principles. Principles lacking in those who kept him captive, missing in those who assailed him, non-existent in those who tried to usurp it from him….[more]
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So how, we wonder, did the Congressional Black Caucus visit Cuba in 2009 and overlook this brutality and racism? How can President Obama even consider a policy of engagement with this dictatorial regime? No American should want to travel to Cuba or “normalize” relationships with the Castros until they are dead or overthrown, until freedom and human dignity are restored to the island nation. Could you convince yourselves “The Castros aren’t so bad except for their torture of political dissidents thing”? If we do not stand for free speech, liberty, and human dignity for all, then what exactly does America stand for in this 21st century?
