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FROM
CUBA
Hunger
strikers in Cuba transferred to an unkown place
HAVANA, September 2 (www.cubanet.org) - Monday
morning, before sunup, prison guards transferred
four political prisoners who were staging a hunger
strike in Boniato prison, Santiago de Cuba, to
a place or places unknown.
The four, independent journalists Manuel Vázquez
Portal and Normando Hernández, and government
opponents Nelson Aguiar and Próspero Gaínza,
had started a hunger strike the day before to
protest prison conditions.
Department of State Security officials in Havana
told Vázquez Portal's sister, Xiomara,
that they had been transferred to Aguadores prison,
also in Santiago de Cuba.
Hernández' wife, Yaraí Reyes, said
that a few days back officer Arrate, of the Department
of State Security, had asked some of the inmates'
relatives to talk to them in an attempt to convince
them not to go on a hunger strike. "Arrate
said the strike would constitute a serious breach
of discipline and that he would rather not have
to resort to force. He said every problem will
be solved in time, and that they were not going
to open their mouths to feed them."
Reyes listed some of the prisoners' grievances:
Scarce and sometimes spoiled food, no light or
electricity in the cells, no access to radio,
TV, or newspapers, little or no medical attention.
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