The family of late hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo put flowers on his grave and sang the Cuban national anthem on Wednesday on the first anniversary of his death that provoked international condemnation of Cuba's human rights.
Only about a dozen family members attended the event in the eastern city of Banes as Cuban authorities appeared to keep a tight rein on island dissidents.
"We’re placing flowers, we’re singing the national anthem, with the Cuban flag close to the grave," his mother Reina Luisa Tamayo told Reuters by telephone from the cemetery.
"We are also asking for freedom and democracy for the Cuban people," she said.
Zapata, who was 42 and serving a 36-year sentence for various convictions, died on Feb. 23, 2010 after an 85-day hunger strike over demands for better prison conditions.
Cuban leaders denounced him as a common criminal who pretended to be a political activist, but in his death he became a martyr for opponents of the island’s communist-led government.
The United States and Europe, international rights organizations and Cuban dissidents strongly criticized Cuba for his demise and urged improved human rights.
Three months later, President Raul Castro met with Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega and agreed to release 52 political prisoners in an accord made public in July.
Since then, 46 of the 52, jailed since a 2003 government crackdown, have been freed. Another 30 or so prisoners who were imprisoned for crimes against the state also have been released. Most of the freed prisoners have gone to Spain at the urging of the Cuban government, which views dissidents as mercenaries working for the arch-enemy United States.
CLOSELY WATCHED
Tamayo said she and her family were closely watched by police and security agents at the Banes cemetery, while dissidents elsewhere were said to be confined to their homes or detained.
"As of yesterday (Tuesday), at least 40 opponents were preventively detained so they could not participate in the remembrance of Zapata," said Elizardo Sanchez, leader of the independent Cuban Commission of Human Rights.
He said another 50 or so had been told not to leave their homes.
Guillermo Farinas, who a day after Zapata died launched a four-month-long hunger strike that added to pressure on the government, said a police captain warned him not to conduct any activities for Zapata in his city of Santa Clara.
"(He said) this was not going to be one more piece in the domino of protests in the Middle East," Farinas said by telephone, referring to the current uprisings against autocratic governments in several Mideast countries.
The U.S. State Department marked the anniversary with a statement calling Zapata "a courageous humanitarian" and urging the release of all remaining Cuban political prisoners.
"We look forward to the day when all Cuban citizens can freely determine their future and express their thoughts and opinions in their country without fear of detention," it said.
The Cuban government had not yet said anything, but last year President Raul Castro said the United States and its programs encouraging opposition to the Cuban government were to blame for Zapata’s death. He also expressed regret about his death.
Tamayo said she and her family had received permission to move to the United States soon. She said Cuban migration officials told her Tuesday night the government would do everything it could to facilitate her departure.
