All eyes on Cuba

This was a week of international attention for Cuba.

On Tuesday, Orlando Zapata Tamayo—a 42-year-old plumber imprisoned in 2003 who was serving a 36-year sentence for disobedience of the government, among other charges—died in prison after an 85-day hunger strike in protest of inhumane prison conditions. His death drew condemnation from the United States, Canada, Spain and France, among others, because (as Cuban Laura Pollan of the Ladies in White stated) “He wasn’t a murderer. He wasn’t a thief. He wasn’t a rapist. He was simply a young man who wanted a better future for Cuba.”

On Wednesday, Raúl Castro made the rare gesture of commenting that he “lamented” the death of Zapata, but in the same breath stated that the prisoner had not been tortured or executed. Those kinds of acts, he said, occurred on the island only on the U.S.-controlled Guantánamo base. The statement was made during a tour of Cuba’s Mariel port with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and was considered very unusual. (At Mariel, Brazil and Cuba are splitting the cost of a $600 million renovation to build a new port designed for full-size container ships.)

On Thursday, photos were released showing Brazil’s Lula meeting with Fidel Castro, laughing with a healthier-looking former Cuban president.

The sequence reflects rather poorly on Lula, who did not meet with dissidents and claimed that he had not received letters from the 50+ prisoners asking him to intercede for their release.

(Photo of Cuban political activist Oswaldo Paya holding a photo of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, credit: Alejandro Ernesto / European Pressphoto Agency / February 24, 2010)