Castro Comments on Dissident’s Death

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Feb. 24 — Cuban President Raul Castro expressed regrets Wednesday for the death of prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo on Tuesday.

Zapata Tamayo, arrested in 2003, was considered a prisoner of conscious by Amnesty International.  He died after on day 85 of a prolonged hunger strike.

According to the official website, Cubadebate.cu, President Castro said that in Cuba “there are no tortured, there weren’t any tortured, and there wasn’t an execution.  That happens at the [US] Guantanamo Naval Base.”

The website quotes the president in his answer to a journalist’s question at the ceremony that took place at the port of Mariel with visiting Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

The full article listed at: www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2010/02/24/responde-raul-castro-sobre-zapata-tamayo/ was not opening as we post this note.