Last week the imperialist media went into a frenzy accusing the Cuban authorities of the violation of the rights of citizens. Their main focus was on Orlando Zapata Tomayo, a 42-year-old prisoner who had died after he went on hunger strike.
The fats of the case are clear and they are reproduced below; Orlando was serving a joint sentence of 25 years imprisonment after having been sentenced in 2004 to three years for public mischief, contempt and resistance to authority. His criminal record is that of a common offender.
From July 1990, he was tried and sentenced on repeated occasions for common offences, among these, breach of the peace, public damage, resistance to authority, two charges of fraud, public exhibitionism, wounding and being armed with non-firearms. While serving his prison sentence he was sentenced several times for disorder in prison and contempt.
In 2001, he was associated with counter-revolutionary activity, one of other mercenaries being contacted by Oswaldo Paya Sardinas and Marta Beatriz Roque. In 2003, he was imprisoned again and since then he at the head of several violent actions in prison, physically threatening prison officials. On repeated occasions, he refused to eat prison food and would only eat foods he received from his relatives.
He pronounced himself to be on a hunger strike on December 18, 2009, refusing to receive medical care. Nevertheless he was first transferred to the prison medical ward and later to the Provincial Hospital in the city of Camaguey, and subsequently to the National Hospital for Prisoners in Havana.
At all those locations, he underwent medical examination and he received all the necessary medical attention, including intermediate and intensive therapy and intravenous and external voluntary feeding methods; he was given all necessary medication and treatment until his death and his own mother recognized that fact.
On February 3, he had a fever that disappeared in 24 hours. Subsequently he was diagnosed with pneumonia for which he received antibiotics and more advanced procedures. As both his lungs were involved, he was on artificial respiration until his death.
After he entered prison, Zapata Tamayo�s mother, Reyna Luisa Tamayo, became associated with counter-revolutionary group activities for which she received payment from counter revolutionary organisations that carry out their activities on United States territory, such as the National Cuban-American Foundation.
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