Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata died in hospital on Tuesday, after being on hunger strike for 85 days. Human rights advocates around the world blamed the government for his death.

Listen to an interview with Susan Gratius of the Spanish think tank Fride.

Orlando Zapata, a 42-year-old political prisoner, died after going virtually without food to protest against prison conditions, said a spokesman for Havana's Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital.

Imprisoned since 2003 and deemed a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, Mr Zapata blamed his already deteriorating health on harsh conditions inside Cuba's jails. He was transferred from a local clinic in the eastern province of Camaguey, near his prison, to the capital's largest hospital on Monday.

The movement "is not seeking martyrs," said Oswaldo Paya, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement dissident group. Mr Zapata died "defending the freedom, rights and dignity of all Cubans," he added.

Hours before Zapata's death, the banned Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) said his condition was "very serious."
Early this month, Cuban police harassed, beat and briefly jailed some 35 dissidents marching in Camaguey in protest against the "cruel and inhuman treatment" of Zapata, according to CCDHRN.

The group's director, Elizardo Sanchez, said it was the first time in 40 years that a Cuban opposition figure has died while on hunger strike. Orlando Zapata's death is "bad news for the human rights movement and for the government as well," Mr Sanchez said.

Prisoners declared “spies”
According to Susan Gratius, researcher at the Spanish think tank Fride, the Cuban government has always denied that there are any political prisoners in the country:

“They declare them mercenaries or spies financed by the US, and that has always been a problem in the relations between the European Union and Cuba, and between Spain and Cuba.”

In this particular case, Mr Zapata was recognised by Amnesty International as one of around 200 political prisoners in Cuba.

He was convicted in 2003 for political activities abhorrent to Cuba’s one-party communist regime. He received a sentence similar to the other 75 dissidents who were jailed that year, but while incarcerated his sentence was boosted to 25 years in subsequent trials.

Hector Palacios, one of 75 political prisoners convicted in 2003 and later released for health reasons, met Mr Zapata in prison. He told AFP he was “crushed”, and that he "had no alternative but to decide on the hunger strike:

“The authorities took no pity on him, they just let him die… The world [will learn] that in Cuba at this moment a man has just died from lack of attention… It's a political crime."

Prison conditions
According to Fride, the conditions under which prisoners in Cuba are held raises grave concerns: “The situation must have been extremely bad because to get food in Havana is [already] very complicated, so you can imagine how the situation is in Cuban prisons”, said Gratius.

Orlando Zapata's death came days after a visit by Washington's highest level delegation to Havana in years. During that trip, a US diplomat met with "dozens of its mercenaries," according to Cuba's foreign ministry, which slammed the "bold-faced meddling" in Cuban affairs.

But while his death failed to make the news in Cuba, “it is news at the international stage”, claims Gratius. It is something that will “affect the dialogue between the European Union and Cuba particularly in terms of Spain holding the rotating EU presidency, which may force it to modify its current position on Cuba”, she said.