Obama and Cuba: End of an Illusion http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/03/obama-and-cuba-end-of-an-illusion/

On February 23, 2010 incarcerated Cuban Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after a prolonged hunger strike, despite the efforts of Cuban medical personnel to treat him and prevent the ending of his life. Over the past several years Zapata Tamayo identified himself with Cuban opponents of the Revolution who are directed by and sustained from Washington. His political “awakening” followed a career in petty crimes such as burglary and fraud that escalated into more serious offenses of assault landing him several separate stints in prison. 

Zapata Tamayo’s death quickly became the pretext for an orchestrated and deeply cynical campaign by the US government and its European imperialist allies – echoed in the big-business media – to slander Cuba around human rights, torture, and political prisoners.Of course, the crocodile tears shed by imperialist governments, institutions, and media over the death of Zapata Tamayo stands in great contrast to the relative silence and lack of action over the numerous (no one knows exactly how many?) detainees – often picked up arbitrarily and not charged, let alone tried, for anything – that have been tortured and beaten to death in the “democratic” custody of US, British, Canadian, and other secret European “facilities” in the so-called “war on terror.