Jailed Cuban activist ends 48-day hunger strike after heart attack

HAVANA – A Cuban activist jailed for putting up anti-government posters and defacing a Fidel Castro billboard ended a 48-day hunger strike on March 19 after suffering a heart attack, his family said.

Roilan Alvarez Rensoler, 40, began the strike after being detained on Jan 31 in the eastern province of Holguin on charges of “propaganda against the constitutional order”.

“He has decided to suspend the strike and begun taking liquids since the heart attack... but his state of health is very delicate,” his sister, Ms Arianna Alvarez Rensoler, said after seeing him at a hospital.

She had told AFP earlier that she could talk to her brother only on the phone because visits were restricted.

Alvarez Rensoler had to be resuscitated after suffering cardiac arrest, the Miami-based rights group Cubalex said in a post on social media platform X, warning of an “imminent risk” to his life.

He was hospitalised on March 4 due to his deteriorating health as a result of the hunger strike, said Justicia11J, a group tracking arrests stemming from massive anti-government protests in July 2021.

Justicia11J called for his immediate release, warning that his “life is in danger after 48 days of sustained hunger strike”.

Alvarez Rensoler is a member of the opposition movements Patriotic Union of Cuba and Cuba Decide.

He previously served a one-year prison sentence for “contempt”.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on March 18 called for the immediate release of Alvarez Rensoler “and of every person detained for political reasons”.

Hunger strikes are a recurring form of protest among jailed Cuban dissidents.

Cuba’s communist authorities said last week that they would release 51 prisoners after talks with the Vatican, which has in the past acted as mediator between Havana and Washington.

Fourteen people who participated in the protests of July 11, 2021, have been released, according to Cubalex and Justicia11J.

There were at least 760 political prisoners in Cuba as at March 13, including 358 who participated in the July 2021 protests, according to Justicia11J.

Cuba denies holding political prisoners and accuses dissidents of being “mercenaries” of the US. AFP