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Cuban Student Leader is Granted Right to Travel After Succeeding in Hunger Strike
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Baracoa. July 11 2008 Cuban Democratic Directorate. Cuban student leader Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina successfully concluded a four-day hunger strike he initiated on July 7th, demanding his right to travel freely within his country. During a meeting with the chief staff of the State Security Department, representatives of the regime acknowledged Néstor’s right to travel to Havana, where he has lived for three years with his wife. The activist was accompanied and supported by his brother Rolando.

 

“We went to the local branch of the Ministry [of the Interior] in the city and there, with the highest commanding officers, the branch officers of the Ministry of the Interior and the Chief of Confrontations, we held a conversation during which they let Néstor travel to the Capital,” expressed Rolando, Director of the Alternative Studies Center of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, vía telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

 

According to Rolando, the officials acknowledged the right Néstor demanded during his hunger strike without conditions, and informed him that all activists detained through military operatives on July 10th would be freed. The detained activists later confirmed this information.

 

The success of this civic resistance act was only achieved after four days of acts of repudiation, organized by State Security against the hunger strike. Other abuses the activists overcame in this campaign were the arbitrary arrests of 14 members of the opposition who supported Néstor’s claims. These arrests were carried-out during regime-directed operatives on July 10th.

 

“In this struggle for rights and justice in our country, it is always important to see the lessons learned during these types of incidents against a powerful regime such as the Cuban regime imposed on the Cuban people during 50 years. We should not deem this action as a euphoric victory. The first lesson to the people is that we can protest, we can demand and claim our rights. There is no need to beg, but instead we can take it and demand it, above all demand it.,” stated Rolando.

 

On July 7, Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina declared himself on hunger strike indefinitely to demand respect for his right to move about freely within his own country. The siege against the home where he remained during the hunger strike marks a significant escalation in the repressive measures deployed against him. The activist was detained on July 2 and sent to internal exile against his will as part of a crackdown against activists in Havana. He was again arrested on July 6 on his way to Havana, where he has lived for three years with his wife.

 

Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina is the president of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, an organization of students and young professionals that advocates for academic freedom and university autonomy. 

 

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