(RSF/IFEX) – On 25 August 2003, RSF expressed great concern at the plight of three imprisoned independent journalists – Mario Enrique Mayo, Adolfo Fernández Sainz and Ivan Hernández Carillo – who have been on hunger-strike since 15 August in the town of Holguin (eastern Cuba). They are demanding proper food and medicine for prisoners who […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 25 August 2003, RSF expressed great concern at the plight of three imprisoned independent journalists – Mario Enrique Mayo, Adolfo Fernández Sainz and Ivan Hernández Carillo – who have been on hunger-strike since 15 August in the town of Holguin (eastern Cuba). They are demanding proper food and medicine for prisoners who have serious illnesses.
“Most jailed independent journalists in Cuba, especially Mario Enrique Mayo, are being held in deplorable conditions that gravely endanger their lives,” the organisation said. “Their transfer to prisons hundreds of kilometres from their families makes them more vulnerable to illness and lack of food.” RSF called for the release of Mayo and other journalists who are ill on “humanitarian grounds.”
Mayo, head of the Félix Varela news agency, and Fernández Sainz and Hernández Carillo, both of the Pátria news agency, began a hunger strike on 15 August, along with four other political prisoners held in Holguin prison.
The hunger strike was launched by Mayo after prison authorities prevented his wife, Maydelín Guerra Álvarez, from giving him a box of medicine and special food to help with his high blood pressure and haemorrhoids. Mayo said he would not eat until he is given food suitable for his condition. The authorities rejected his demand. The journalist was immediately backed by other political prisoners. Unconfirmed reports said he and Fernández Sainz were transferred to the prison clinic soon after they began the hunger strike and were in very poor condition.
On 4 August, Blanca Reyes, wife of jailed journalist and poet Raúl Rivero, told RSF she was very worried about her husband’s conditions of detention and that he had lost 40 pounds (18 kg) since his arrest on 20 March. Reyes said she was able to speak to Rivero by phone on 31 July (see IFEX alert of 8 August 2003).
