Posts
JUAN TAMAYO/
Dissident journalist Guillermo Farinas, 48, was awarded the 2010 Sakharov human rights prize awarded by the European Parliament for his struggle for an "end to the dictatorship."
Farinas has endured 23 hunger strikes in protest against Cuba's severely limited freedoms, including a 135-day strike that has still left him emaciated.
He also spent more than 11 years in prison for a variety of offenses.
Farinas is the third Cuban recipient of the prize, after Oswaldo Paya in 2002 and the Ladies in White in 2005. The award carries a stipend of 50,000 euros, worth over $69,000 usd, incidentally making him one of the richest Cubans in a society where the average wage is less than $20 per month.
Cuba watchers ( Habanistas) believe this prestigious award is the fourth recent blow to the Castros hopes that economic and political easing was coming from the U.S.and the EU.
