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Cuba - Source: Reuters -
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Amid shouts of "Zapata lives," about 100 people mourned Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo as he was buried in his hometown of Banes following his death by hunger strike this week.
According to Zapata's family and dissidents in Havana, the funeral, held under a rainy sky, took place with dozens of state security agents looking on as the Cuban government clamped down to prevent the event from becoming a rallying point for dissent.
Reina Tamayo, Zapata's mother, says she refused to cry when her son's wooden coffin was lowered into the ground in the humble local cemetery.
"I'll have my moment to cry for Orlando Zapata, but not in front of them," she says, referring to the government agents.
"We showed them that my son will continue living inside of us. We did not fear them," Tamayo said in a phone interview from Banes, a sleepy city of 80,000 people 800 km east of Havana.
Zapata, a 42-year-old plumber, died in a Havana hospital after an 85-day hunger strike to protest conditions in prison, where he had been since 2003 on charges of disrespect, public disorder and resistance.
His death brought international condemnation and calls from the United States and Europe for Cuba to release all of its estimated 200 political prisoners.
President Raul Castro says he regrets Zapata's death, but blames it on the United States for its support of Cuban dissidents.
Mercenaries
Cuba views dissidents as US mercenaries working to topple the Cuban government.
Tamayo says her home, where a wake was held for Zapata, was ringed by security agents and the government rejected her desire for the funeral procession to walk to the cemetery.
"We wanted to carry him in our arms to the cemetery, but they did not accept that," she says. Instead, the coffin was driven to the site.
But along the way and during the burial, some onlookers shouted "Zapata lives," she says. Others say there were shouts of "Freedom for the political prisoners" and "Long live human rights."
Some dissidents wore disguises to slip past police and get to Tamayo's house, they say.
Tamayo says her son did not die in vain because his death will strengthen opposition to the Cuban government.
"I think that with the death of Orlando Zapata, the internal opposition will gain strength, gain courage and intensify their peaceful work against the regime," she says.
The Catholic Church in Cuba says Zapata's death was "a tragedy for everyone" and urged that "all Cubans feel for each other and be brothers."
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