A communist government ruled by Fidel Castro was established on January 1, 1959 in Cuba due to a continuous political opposition. Since 1965, Cuba has been ruled by the Communist Party of Cuba that is very centralized. With that established, they helped to keep an eye on the political institutions and any opposition organizations and protests. Activists, anti-communist agents of foreign governments, especially the U.S., opposed the repression on political speech and debate. Consequences for any movements or protests were arrests. Castro's brother, General Raul Castro, took over as chief of state on February 24, 2008.
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Background
Cuba is one of the few left in the world that is a communist state. On February 24, 2010, this particular protest campaign for the release of Cuban political prisoners was one of, if not the greatest struggle between the Cuban government and political opposition, due to wanting a better democracy. Previous protesters before this campaign and including Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Guillermo Hernández, fought for many different variations of having democracy within Cuba, including freedom of speech and press, organizing political parties, access to the internet, and ultimately, western democratic political freedoms. However, the shared result leading up to this particular protest, was protesters being arrested and imprisoned due to the belief of the Cuban government that they were hired by the U.S. government to sabotage Havana's rule. The major objective of this protest initiated by Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and then carried on by Guillermo Fariñas, was mostly to improve the opposition political prisoners handling once they were arrested and charged by the state.
Guillermo Fariñas
Guillermo Fariñas Hernández is a Cuban psychologist, an independent journalist and a political protester, in which he has participated in over 23 hunger strikes in Cuba to protest the environments of the Cuban regime. Fariñas began his hunger strike protest after another prisoner in Cuba, Zapata, had also been protesting with his own hunger strike of 85 days for the terrible inhabitants conditions of the prison and being rejected to wear white, before he passed. Fariñas’ hunger strike campaign was to not only protest the death of Zapata but also for the release of 26 other gravely sick prisoners as he believed they were not receiving proper medical assistance. Thus; started his non-violent protest in February 24 of 2010.
The Protests
As Hernández started to decline with his health, other anti-communist groups stepped up to assist him in his protest, such as the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe and even protests at Cuban embassies. A letter of support for Fariñas protest was sent by "Viasna" from the Human Rights Center as well. However, even with the hunger strike and some world support, the Cuban government showed no signs of backing down as they felt they were being pressured and even tried to argue it was because of paid U.S., mercenaries trying to inflict on their political system. On May 2, 2010 the government allowed the "Ladies in White", who are another non-violent activist group, to march every Sunday for the release of both their husbands and now the political prisoners. In the previous month of April, President Raul Castro claimed he would not give into the "blackmail of the hunger strike", although had changed his ruling less than a month later. Not long after, the Roman Catholic Church caught wind of what was happening and decided to step in with the Cuban government to find a peaceful release result for the prisoners.
Aftermath
Towards the end of May, the Cuban government had negotiations with the Roman Catholic Church and finally agreed to move the political inmates to prisons that gave better medical assistance and allowed them to be closer to their families. June 1 is when the inmates started to be relocated. Elizardo Sanchez, who is an activist and spokesperson for the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, placed charges against the Cuban government for unruly arrests as well as ‘acts of repression’ against the Eastern Democratic Alliance in Santiago de Cuba. July 7, 2010 was the day that discussions between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church ended with an agreement to release the total of 52 prisoners, which included the 26 inmates Fariñas protested for. On July 8, Fariñas ended his hunger strike, which had lasted just over 130 days.