Analysts see award to Fariñas as fourth setback in a week to the Castro regime
22.10.2010
A prestigious human rights prize awarded to dissident
Guillermo Fariñas on Thursday was the fourth admonition to the Cuban government this week that its reforms are not enough, Cuba watchers said Thursday.
Fariñas, 48, a psychologist and independent journalist whose 135-day hunger strike earlier this year put him near death, was awarded the Sakharov prize and more than $60,000 by the European Parliament.
The Raúl Castro government had no immediate comment on Fariñas' prize, but Cuba watchers noted that it was the latest in a string of setbacks that Havana suffered just this week:
• President Barack Obama declared that Cuba has not changed enough to merit U.S. gestures.
• Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, often criticized as too friendly to Havana, was replaced.
• The European Union was reported unlikely to end a policy that ties assistance to Cuba's human rights record.
"These are four messages to Cuba that it's not doing enough, that it needs a more defined policy of change," dissident Havana economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe told El Nuevo Herald.
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