Monday, January 4, 2016

Cuban political prisoner on hunger strike fed "against his will"

Uncommon Sense gives an update on the plight of Vladimir Morera Bacallao which is reproduced below. This blog has been following the plight of this political prisoner who risked his life for eighty days on hunger strike demanding his freedom and denouncing his unjust imprisonment. Becoming incoherent the prison authorities began to force feed him on December 30, 2015 reports his wife. Bacallao was one of five prisoners identified by the Obama administration as freed following the December 17, 2014 U.S. Cuba policy announcement who since have been re-arrested. The other four who have been rearrested along with Vladimir Morera Bacallao are Wilfredo Parada Milian, Jorge Ramirez Calderon, Carlos Manuel Figueroa and Aracelio Ribeaux Noa. In 2015 the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Cuba reported that there were 8,616 politically motivated arbitrary detentions. 930 Cuban dissidents were detained in December alone. 

Cuban political prisoner Vladimir Morera Bacallao ends hunger strike 'against his will'

Vladimir-Morera-Bacallao-Fuente-Twitter_CYMIMA20151227_0002_16Vladimir Morera Bacallao
Cuban political prisoner Vladimir Morera Bacallao's hunger strike was terminated Dec. 30 when doctors began feeding him intravenously after he slipped into an incoherent state after more than 80 days of not eating to demand his release. His wife said he is being fed "against his will."

"If he had his mental faculties, he would not have ended the hunger strike," said Morera's wife, Maribel Herrera. "What happened is that he is completely disoriented."

Morera, an activist with the Cuban Reflection Movement in November was sentenced to 4 years in prison on charges of "public disorder" and "injuries." The case stemmed from an incident in April when Morera painted a message on his door to protest local "elections" in Cuba: "I vote for my freedom, not in elections where I cannot elect my president."
Cuban police and other goons responded by breaking into Morera's house and arrested, an intrusion for which Morera took all the blame.
The circumstances were similar to an incident 2013, after which Morera was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
At the time of his sentencing on Nov. 18, Morera had already been on hunger strike for 40 days, a protest he continued into Christmastime, at great risk to his life. 

The Castro regime has given no indication it will give Morera what he wants. But considering the attention his protest has attained, the dictatorship may not be willing to let him die.

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