Cuban Prisoners of Conscience Diosdado González Marrero & Pedro Argüelles Morán join Lady in White on Hunger Strike

Three on Hunger Strike in Cuba three weeks before one year mark of Orlando Zapata Tamayo's death on Hunger Strike


Cuban Prisoners of Conscience Diosdado González Marrero and Pedro Argüelles Morán joined Lady in White Alejandrina García de la Riva on hunger strike demanding freedom for eleven prisoners of conscience imprisoned during the 2003 Cuban Black Spring.

They were supposed to have been freed by November 7, 2010 following the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and negotiations with the Ladies in White with the Cuban Catholic Church as mediator.

Agence France Press from Havana interviewed activists and in their report outlined the reasons for the hunger strike:

The pair, who began a hunger strike Tuesday, has turned down the offer to move to Spain and is demanding to be released in Cuba.

Gonzalez and Arguelles's protest is in solidarity with Gonzalez's wife Alejandrina Garcia, who has only been drinking water since Friday.

"I will not stop this hunger strike until he is released," Garcia told AFP in a phone call from her home in central Cuba.

"The government has made a mockery of these 11 men."

Laura Pollan, leader of the Ladies in White -- a group of relatives of the jailed dissidents -- visited Garcia, a 44 year-old agronomist, on Wednesday. She said she failed to dissuade her from continuing the hunger strike.

"The government has raised false expectations, because it said that everyone in the group would be released, including those who reject leaving the country, but that has all been a lie," said Pollan.

Pollan's husband Hector Maseda is one of the jailed dissidents.

On February 2, 2011 Yoani Sanchez was able to upload a video recorded on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 in which Lady in White Alejandrina García de la Riva describes her physical state on the fifth day of her water only hunger strike.

Alejandrina Garcia on hunger strike since January 28

The Free Cuba Foundation, a student movement founded at Florida International University in 1993 has issued an international call for all people of good will to join in a 24-hour water only fast starting at 3pm on February 23, 2011 the time one year to the day that Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on hunger strike. The following day from 3:21pm to 3:28pm to hold a silent vigil to correspond with the times when two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down killing Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr. pictured below.


Orlando, Carlos, Pablo, Mario and Armando paid the ultimate price in trying to save the lives of others and merit both remembrance and honor for their sacrifice. At the same time all people of good will should try to raise awareness about Alejandrina, Diosdado and Pedro in an effort to save their lives and demand the freedom of eleven prisoners of conscience imprisoned since 2003 that should never have spent a day in jail much less 8 years.

Tweet yesterday from @yoanisanchez #cuba #GY Alejandrina, Lady in White with friends & colleagues with link to above picture http://twitpic.com/3vu7yf

158 years after the birth of José Martí a Cuban Woman is on hunger strike demanding her husband's freedom

It is terrible to speak of you, Liberty, for one who lives without you. - José Martí

On hunger strike, Alejandrina García de la Riva

José Julián Martí Pérez was born on January 28, 1853 and will be honored by a dictatorship that is the antithesis of everything he represented and advocated. Today, on the the 158th anniversary of his birth Alejandrina García de la Riva, wife of Cuban prisoner of conscience Diosdado González Marrero and thus a Cuban Lady in White, wrote to Yoani Sanchez: "I declare myself on hunger strike for the freedom of my husband Diosdado." Shortly after midnight on January 28, 2011 the Cuban Democratic Directorate released a statement from Alejandrina.

Alejandrina has a twitter account with one entry from June 11, 2010 that reads: "To the Cuban government I say: Do not be afraid to open the gates and free the prisoners of conscience."


Alejandrina García de la Riva speaks out on February 1, 2011, the 5th day of her hunger strike (video by Yoani Sanchez)

A month later on July 7, 2010, according to Cardinal Jaime Ortega, an agreement was reached where all prisoners of conscience imprisoned during the 2003 Cuban Black Spring would be freed by November 2010 with those wanting to remain in Cuba being released last. With the exception of one prisoner of conscience, Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique, age 68, the only one's released have been driven to the airport and placed on a plane out of the country into exile. Eleven prisoners of conscience from 2003 remain in prison today. One of them is Alejandrina's husband, Diosdado González Marrero.

He was arrested on March 18, 2003. According to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)he was "[s]entenced to 20 years imprisonment on April 7, 2003." The IACHR also informed that he was a "[m]ember of the Peace, Democracy, and Freedom Party (Partido Paz, Democracia y Libertad) in Perico Matanzas," and that he was born on August 10, 1962.

In 2004, Amnesty International described Diosdado as having "been an activist for several years" who "has been detained on several occasions" and had been "recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience in the past." According to reports presented to Amnesty International, "he suffers from high blood pressure and apparently has not received adequate medical attention for his complaint."

Below you can listen to Alejandrina García de la Riva interviewed by the Argentine journalist Débora Plager on July 10, 2010 where she talks about the circumstances surrounding her husband's arrest and their family:



In the recording below you can listen to Alejandrina as she describes an activity carried out by the Ladies in White on September 26, 2010:



"The struggles waged by nations are weak only when they lack support in the hearts of their women. But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible." - José Martí

Cuban Ladies in White silently marching through Havana demanding their loved one's freedom. Perhaps the dictatorship is afraid to free non-violent prisoners of conscience and would prefer to confront the powerful mobilization of Cuban women because they fear 11 courageous men. They who have organized acts of repudiation; sought to sow hatred and distrust into Cuban society in order to divide it; murdered innocent men, women and children in massacres like the "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre and the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down; and falsely imprisoned, tortured and murdered prisoners of conscience like Orlando Zapata Tamayo then slandered them in death and harassed their families lack all decorum.

They also know as José Martí long ago observed that "[w]hen there are many men without decorum, there are always others who themselves possess the decorum of many men. These are the ones who rebel with terrible strength against those who rob nations of their liberty, which is to rob men of their decorum. Embodied in those men are thousands of men, a whole people, human dignity." That kind of moral strength when faced with a morally bankrupt regime can bring it down quickly.

Update: On Tuesday, February 1, 2011 Cuban prisoner of conscience Diosdado González Marrero initiated a water only hunger strike in solidarity with his wife demanding freedom of 11 prisoners of conscience imprisoned in 2003 and was joined by fellow prisoner of conscience Pedro Argüelles. Associated Press reported on Tuesday that Alejandrina had already lost 5 pounds.

Lady in White on hunger strike demanding to see her husband achieves her goal

Lady in White Alejandrina García de la Riva demands Diosdado González Marrero's freedom


Alejandrina García de la Riva began a hunger strike on June 4, 2010 outside of Agüica prison after prison officials refused to let her see her husband Diosdado González Marrero, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. She is now demanding his release as a condition to end the hunger strike.

Diosdado was one of the six transferred to a prison closer to his home province, but there was an ominous catch reminiscent of what was done to Orlando Zapata Tamayo when he had been transferred in December of 2009. Like Orlando,when he arrived at Agüica, a maximum security prison, Diosdado was thrown into a punishment cell because of his refusal to put on a prison uniform. In response, González he started a hunger strike. Yesterday, Alejandrina announced that she did not know her husband's whereabouts and today she has planted herself outside of the prison and has launched into a hunger strike.


She spoke with Cardinal Jaime Ortega by phone and asked him to pray for her because she is staying on the hunger strike until her husband is freed. At the same time according to The Miami Herald the dictatorship detained 37 Cuban activists signaling a new wave of repression. Reports today in El Nuevo Herald indicate that many, if not all, of the 37 had been released. Nevertheless, the prisoners of conscience continue in prison - some now closer to home but they should have never been imprisoned in the first place.

Update: News reports that both Alejandrina García de la Riva and Diosdado González Marrero have ended their hunger strike with fundamental demands met. She was able to see her husband and he is no longer required to put on a prison uniform.