SOS: Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera on hunger strike in Cuba

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." -Rosa Parks

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

There are days when the 140 characters contained in a single tweet can leave a profound impact. Today was such a day when I read the following from the twitter account of Cuban democratic opposition leader Jorge Garcia Perez "Antunez":

antunezcuba A las 4pm, mi esposa Yris comenzó huelga de hambre exigiendo atención médica con dignidad y libertad de movimiento.#cuba

That translates into English as follows:

antunezcuba At 4pm, my wife Yris began a hunger strike demanding medical attention with dignity and freedom of movement. #Cuba

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera and Jorge Garcia Perez "Antunez"

Antunez is referring to his wife, Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera who back on May 25 was detained by Cuban state security while engaged in a peaceful demonstrations then brutalized by a state security agent nicknamed the weightlifter and held incommunicado until protests and international scrutiny obtained her reappearance bruised, battered and incoherent on May 27. The days have passed into weeks but the symptoms persist and state security is now interfering with her ability to obtain proper medical attention.

This has led this woman, a disciple of Rosa Parks, to begin a hunger strike demanding that the Cuban regime respect her dignity as a human being and her right to freedom of movement to visit a medical doctor and obtain care.

The bottom line is that the dictatorship in Cuba does not care about the life of Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera but it does care about both national and international reaction with regards to her plight. Unfortunately there have been other cases were women of African descent have been beaten up by agents of the Cuban regime. Without international media attention the dictatorship has not had to pay a political price and encouraged has increased its brutality.

The fact that Yris is of African descent and that the dictatorship in Cuba has come under increased scrutiny for its mistreatment of Cubans of African descent means that attention to her plight can make a difference. In a real sense her life is in all of our hands. Speak out for Yris. Tell your friends and family about her. Write a letter to the editor. Write a letter to the dictatorship in Cuba. Call in to a radio talk show. Please do something her life depends on it.