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Guillermo Farinas was arrested Friday, his family said, after three days of protesters preparing to stage a protest rally.
Cuban activist and journalist and human rights activist Guillermo Farinas was arrested on Friday, his family said.
His arrest on Friday comes three days before protesters set out to stage a series of protests against the government’s ban.
“She was arrested today. She picked him up around 2:10 pm [19:10 GMT], “Farina’s mother Alicia Hernandez told AFP.
She said her son was taking antibiotics for urinary tract infections.
“An ambulance and two paramedics came and took him to Arnaldo Milian Castro Hospital,” Hernandez said.
He told me that tomorrow the prosecutor would visit him in court, but we do not know what he will do.
Farinas, 59, is a trained psychologist and has worked as a freelance journalist and human rights activist. He won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2010 by the European Parliament.
For the past 20 years or so, Farinas has been on 23 hunger strikes in protest of the Cuban government’s health, which is detrimental to his health.
He is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, the largest political opposition group in the country.
Farinas’ arrest comes in response to protests led by protesters set up Monday demanding the release of political prisoners from Cuba.
The summit has been banned by the communist government on the island, but planners are planning to continue with it.
Officials who are organizing the protests are backed by Washington and want to effect a change of government.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said his supporters were “ready to defend themselves against terrorists” in the face of “a (United States) imperialist attempt to quell the unrest.
“We are calm, self-reliant, but vigilant and vigilant, and we are ready to defend these terrorists, in order to deal with any threat to our country,” Diaz-Canel said on television on Friday.
“We are ready to negotiate, to quarrel,” he added, “but we are a closed, closed-minded and closed-minded group of foreigners.”
Cuban officials, who deny the existence of political prisoners in the country, view the protesters as “unconstitutional” and say they are supported by US funds.
Unprecedented protests took place in Cuba in July when people marched in the streets shouting “freedom” and “we are hungry”.
The protests left one person dead, many injured and 1,175 arrested. Half are still in prison, says the Cubalex civil rights group.
The head of the trip Monday, Yunior Garcia, said on Friday that authorities had warned him that he would be arrested if he continued to march alone one day earlier.
“They also told me what prison they would take me to,” Garcia told AFP, insisting that he continue his self-portrait.
“I’m not hiding.”
Garcia is a 39-year-old actress who founded the Archipielago, a group that encourages Cubans to take to the streets on Monday to stage anti-government protests.
He says the goal of solitary confinement in Havana is to reduce the risk of violence.
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