Brussels: The European Parliament awarded its top human rights prize yesterday to Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas, whose hunger strike this year helped pressure Havana into releasing political prisoners.
Farinas, a 48-year-old psychologist, journalist and former soldier, has conducted more than 20 hunger strikes in the last two decades for various causes, including a campaign against internet censorship.
The European Union, along with the United States, has long pressed Havana to free political prisoners, improve human rights and move towards democracy.
Pressure tactics
"Farinas was ready to sacrifice and risk his own health and life as a means of pressure to achieve change in Cuba," European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek told the assembly in announcing the award.
The 27-state EU lifted diplomatic sanctions against Cuba in 2008 but continues to tie economic cooperation with the island to the plight of political prisoners.
Havana — which considers its political prisoners to be mercenaries working for its long-time ideological foe, the United States — agreed in July to free several dozen and send them to Spain, in a deal brokered by the Catholic Church.
