Raul Castro Regrets Activist Death as Lula Arrives

Iuri Dantas and Jonathan J. Levin
Bloomberg
February 24, 2010

Cuban President Raul Castro said he regrets the death of dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived on the island nation to inaugurate an $800 million investment.

Zapata Tamayo died yesterday after an 11-week hunger strike in a Havana prison, where he had been held since 2003 for contempt of authority, according to the U.S. State Department.

“We are really sorry about his death,” Castro told reporters in Mariel, Cuba. “We didn’t murder anyone. No one was tortured here,” he added.

The dissident’s death has drawn criticism from the U.S., which says Zapata Tamayo was a political prisoner and that the Cuban government should free others being held for political reasons...

...Lula arrived in Cuba today as part of a regional tour that includes visits to El Salvador and Mexico. He doesn’t plan to comment on the dissident’s death, Brazilian Foreign Affairs Adviser Marco Aurelio Garcia said. Lula’s trip is part of an effort to expand Brazil’s role as a diplomatic broker in the region before leaving office Dec. 31, said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the New York-based Council of the Americas.

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