Cuba human rights activist Jorge Cervantes starts hunger strike to protest arrest

Jorge Cervantes

Uncommon Sense/ by Marc R. Masferrer

Cuban dissident Jorge Cervantes spent the better part of 15 years in the Castro gulag, so when he steps out against the regime, he does it with the full force of his will and convictions.

That's exactly what he did this week.

Cervantes and another activist, Guillermo Cobas Reyes, were arrested after police in Contramaestre, the hometown of murdered political prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza, caught them putting up posters protesting Villar's death.

Soon afterward, Cervantes declared a hunger strike to demand his release.

Considering what the regime did to Villar after he started an identical protest with an identical demand, that truly is courageous.