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Alert

Journalist Guillermo Fariñas Hernández ends hunger strike

(RSF/IFEX) - Niurvys Díaz Remond of the independent Cubanacán Press agency has reported that the agency's director, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, has again suspended the hunger strike he originally began more than four months ago and is once more, since 30 June 2006, being fed intravenously.

After initially agreeing to be put on a drip, he had it disconnected. But the staff at the Villa Clara hospital to which he was admitted on 8 February finally convinced him to call off his hunger strike. His advanced state of malnutrition means that wounds cannot heal properly. He has staphylococcus aureus and streptococcus infections that could do irreversible harm. He also has an extremely painful neuritis in the chest area for which he constantly needs painkillers.