Cuban Activist Ends Hunger Strike

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Cuban Activist Ends Hunger Strike
Guillermo Fari?as, an opposition activist, ended a 134-day hunger strike on Thursday, after indications that the government would make good on its promise to release 52 political prisoners.
Mr. Fari?as took sips of water at a hospital near his home in the central city of Santa Clara, said Licet Zamora, a spokeswoman for him. Ms. Zamora described Mr. Fari?as’s condition as grave after he recently suffered a potentially fatal blood clot in his neck.
After ending his hunger strike, Mr. Fari?as, 48, a psychologist and freelance journalist, appeared to be in good spirits as he sat on the bed in his hospital room, while two nurses attended to him. Some relatives waited in a room nearby.
Kept alive by intravenous feeding, Mr. Fari?as had refused food and water since shortly after a fellow dissident, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died Feb. 23 after a long hunger strike while in prison.
President Raúl Castro of Cuba had said Mr. Fari?as would be responsible if his hunger strike caused his death. Mr. Fari?as had demanded the release of dozens of political prisoners, and an accord reached on Wednesday between the government and officials from the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba prompted him to agree to abandon his hunger strike.
Under the agreement, which was brokered by Foreign Minister Miguel ángel Moratinos of Spain, the government promised to free five political prisoners soon and send them to Spain. The authorities also pledged to follow that release by releasing 47 additional political prisoners in the next two or three months.