“I took the pulse as much as I could, as much as I could.” Cuban biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola left last night the hunger and thirst strike that he held in Geneva, a few meters from the headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The scientist and environmental defender waited for more than 12 days for the office chaired by Michelle Bachelet to take up his petitions against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, which finally arrived, in his opinion, in a report published by the local newspaper La Tribuna de Ginebra. . “The world is going to witness if the organization works or if they are delinquent bureaucrats who destroy human rights,” he said during a conversation with a Cuban exile media outlet, recorded on video by his companions during the hunger strike.
The Cuban revolution prevents the return to the island of his sister Omara Ruiz Urquiola, who intended to travel to the island after receiving cancer treatment in the United States. A kind of forced exile that she has also applied against the activist Anamely Ramos, who is also currently protesting in front of the White House.
Both belong to the San Isidro Movement (MSI), whose leader, the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, also began a hunger strike on July 4, the same day as Ruiz Urquiola. Family and friends do not know what his state of health is today.
“The Wilson Palace mafia (referring to Bachelet’s Office) once again justifies that it has responded officially, with a press release. They are going to continue with my case and with Omara’s case. Actually, I don’t wait any longer.” They already gave everything they were going to give,” said the biologist after describing what happened in the last few hours. Ruiz Urquiola has the support of a group of Cuban organizations, led by Justicia 11J and Cubalex.
“Bachelet is a very disastrous person for the human rights of ordinary beings, like myself,” criticized Ruiz Urquiola, an opinion shared by a good part of Cuban exiles and dissidents. The former Chilean president, who will finish her mandate in a few weeks to return to her country’s politics, has always maintained good diplomatic relations with the Cuban revolution.
This activist has carried out four hunger strikes since he was sentenced in 2018 to one year in prison for contempt as part of the harassment policy to which they are subjected by the State on the family farm. During his stay in the Kilo 5 prison, Ruiz Urquiola was infected with HIV, for which the scientist directly blames the revolution.
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