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Cuban dissident recovering in clinic
after ending hunger strike
Havana, Mar 29 (EFE).- Imprisoned dissident
Juan
Carlos Herrera is recovering in
a Camaguey hospital in eastern Cuba after
ending a three-and-a-half-week hunger strike
during which he sewed his lips shut, his
wife announced Wednesday.
Iliana Danger told EFE that she had learned
through a friend who visited her husband
that he is "a lot better" after
being taken to the hospital on Monday, where
doctors removed the sutures he had placed
in his own lips the day before.
Herrera, 39 and a reporter for the not-officially-recognized
Libre Oriental news agency, began his hunger
strike on March 4 to demand that "he
be transferred (from) and his conditions
(of confinement) improved in" Camaguey's
Kilo 8 prison, where he is serving a 20-year
sentence for dissident activities.
"Now he's going to rest. They spoke
with him and he's going to see what happens
in a few days," Danger said.
Herrera is one of the 75 Cuban opposition
figures who were sentenced here in the spring
of 2003 after being convicted of engaging
in activities endangering the Cuban state's
independence and undermining the principles
of the island's Communist Revolution.
Meanwhile, Guillermo
Fariñas, a psychologist and
director of the independent Cubanacan Press
agency, is in serious but stable condition
after on Wednesday ending a 56-day hunger
strike he began to demand free access to
the Internet. The dissident "has had
no complications, but he is very weak, with
headaches and polyneuropathies in his legs
and hands," his mother Alicia Hernandez
told EFE on Wednesday.
Fariñas, 43, is receiving medical
care - including intravenous nourishment
and fluids - in a hospital in Santa Clara,
some 280 kilometers (about 175 miles) east
of Havana. Hernandez said that her son continues
to suffer from cramps, has little feeling
in his hands and legs and remains committed
to continuing his hunger strike, although
relatives and friends "are doing everything
possible to get him to end it." Fariñas
- who began another hunger strike in 2003
that he pursued for 14 months, taking in
only liquids - has staged 19 shorter protests
of this kind since 1995.
Puerto Rican Protest Against Cuban Erupts
AP, Mar 29, 2006.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Some 20 demonstrators
angered by a ceremony honoring a Cuban defector
stormed into Puerto Rico's statehouse Wednesday,
breaking tables, windows and a glass case
covering the U.S. territory's constitution.
The demonstrators were angered by a tribute
lawmakers were paying to Julio Labatut,
a Cuban dissident and a renowned florist
honored for his charitable works and entrepreneurship
in Puerto Rico.
Some alleged Labatut was involved in the
unsolved 1979 killing of Carlos Muniz Varela,
an activist for Puerto Rico's independence.
"We will never forget. Stop the impunity,"
Muniz's son, Carlos Muniz Perez, 31, told
the crowd of several hundred demonstrating
in front of the statehouse.
At one point, a protester tried to pull
down the U.S. flag in front of the building.
Three police officers and one lawyer participating
in the tribute were injured, said San Juan
police Cmdr. Anibal Marrero. One of the
protesters who stormed the statehouse was
arrested.
Labatut, who was part of a group of Cuban
exiles that encouraged Cuban athletes competing
in Puerto Rico in the early 1990s to defect
from Cuba, said he was insulted by the protest.
Cuba's Contreras signs extension with
Chicago
CHICAGO, United States, 1 (AFP) - Jose
Contreras signed a three-year, 29 million
US dollar contract extension that will keep
the righthanded pitcher with the Chicago
White Sox through the 2009 season.
The 34-year-old was 15-7 with a 3.61 earned
run average (ERA) in 32 starts last season
but was one of the best Major League Baseball
pitchers in the game in the second half.
The Cuban was 11-2 with a 2.96 ERA after
the All-Star break and was 3-1 with a 3.09
ERA in the postseason.
In three years with the White Sox and New
York Yankees, Contreras has gone 35-18 with
a 3.61 ERA.
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