Agents of the Cuban security services have detained this Wednesday in his home in Santa Clara the opposition Guillermo Fariñas, one of the most recognized figures of the dissidence inside and outside the island, winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for freedom of conscience in the year 2010.
The NGO Prisoners Defenders, which advocates for the respect of Human Rights in Cuba, has confirmed the arrest of Fariñas, without specifying the cause of the arrest yet. “We only know that regime forces went to his house and took him away,” the organization said on Twitter.
Fariñas, leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum (FANTU), has repeatedly denounced the repressive policies of the Cuban regime, including through hunger strikes. The last of these strikes took place in 2016, although the longest was in 2010, when he fasted for more than four months.
In recent years, he has been detained on several occasions, sometimes for just a few hours, and his latest arrest would be part of a growing campaign of repression, as opposition organizations have denounced in recent weeks. These organizations have assured that the control measures have been tightened since the July protests to demand a democratic openness.
