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Dissident in a
coma after hunger strike
By Karl Ross, kross@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Apr. 08, 2004 in The
Miami Herald.
A Cuban human rights activist, jailed for
hatching plans to honor the late Brothers
to the Rescue fliers, has lapsed into a
coma after a prolonged hunger strike, according
to sources monitoring his health.
Sources described as ''delicate'' the condition
of Leonardo Miguel Bruzón Avila,
imprisoned without trial since Feb. 23,
2002, the eve of a protest he was organizing
to commemorate the death of the four Miami
exiles in 1996.
'He said he was going to start an indefinite
hunger strike called 'Liberty or Death,'
'' journalist María del Carmen Carro
said in a telephone interview Wednesday
from Havana. "Other prisoners joined
him, but they gave up.''
Carro said Bruzón Avila, who began
his hunger strike on Oct. 10, lapsed into
a coma on Tuesday. He decided to refuse
even liquids in February, the second anniversary
of his arrest. His mother told sources Bruzón
had lost teeth due to malnutrition.
''He wanted to have his day in court or
be liberated,'' Carro said.
Bruzón Avila, 48, has staged numerous
hunger strikes in the past, causing outcry
from Amnesty International and Cuban exile
groups. This is the first time he has lost
consciousness, sources said.
Carro said she received word from Bruzón
Avila's family early Tuesday that he had
fallen into a coma at the Salvador Allende
Hospital in Havana.
She said she was told his blood pressure
was low and his vital signs weak.
Ninoska Pérez-Castellón,
spokeswoman for the Miami-based Cuban Liberty
Council, said Cuban authorities frequently
neglect political prisoners.
''We've denounced this so many times,''
she said. "All they had to do was make
sure he gets real medical attention, and
they denied him that.''
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