The Fariñas-Castro arm-wrestling match
By Aurelio Pedroso
Guillermo Fariñas’ life is in imminent danger after almost two weeks on a hunger-and- thirst strike. His demand is unlikely to be met: the release of more than 20 prison inmates charged with activities catalogued as counter-revolutionary.
Fariñas, a 48-year-old psychologist who became a self-employed journalist, has been called so many names that I would rather simply call him an opponent of the regime. He has created enough of a background for that.
Right off the bat, I would say with certainty that he won’t achieve his objective – the release of his fellow campaigners. The newspaper Granma (which should not only be read but also interpreted) has just stated that “no pressures or blackmail” will prevail.
What road should Guillermo Fariñas and his advisers take, then?
The most sacred aspect in a man’s life is his own life, and it would seem the opponent is playing with it recklessly, although he has had plenty of experience in these fasting feats. According to serious reports, between 1995 and 2006 he staged about 20 hunger strikes, at the rate of 1.6 fastings per year.
The latest opportunity presented to him by the authorities was through a Spanish Embassy adviser in Havana: put him aboard an Iberia airliner and fly him to Barajas Airport in Madrid.
Fariñas responded with a flat no. That must have embarrassed some dissidents, such as Raúl Rivero; when Spain interceded for him, he no sooner left the prison than he clicked on his safety belt and asked how soon he’d be served a meal aboard.
Another case was notorious. Armando Valladares, who rose to important heights in the U.S. government as its delegate to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, claimed that he was paralyzed and had to remain permanently on a wheelchair. When the time came to board the plane, a G-2 official, speaking in a biblical voice, invited him to “stand up and walk,” and the poet ran to the stairs, lest he be sent back to prison.
Just two examples, so as not to tire you. Guillermo Fariñas’ claim might well be serious, but despite the many confirmations that Washington funds the dissident movement, we still don’t know about anyone who charges in advance for his own self-destruction.
Fariñas has only two options. One, postpone the strike for a later time. He has staged so many hunger strikes that one more won’t matter. Two, he can die after his weak body, unable to control his own feeding, can withstand no further treatment.
The latter choice would worsen things. It would provide more firewood to a well-designed media campaign. He would be one more martyr, after Orlando Zapata. Another dissident, engineer Félix Bonne Carcassés, has said that, if Fariñas dies, “I shall replace him in the strike until the final outcome.” The arm-wrestling match is about to end and on the island this raw winter has been beyond suffocating.
Aurelio Pedroso, a Cuban journalist, is a member of the Progreso Weekly team.
