![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/cuba-detainees-bahamas.jpg\" "\\"cuba-detainees-bahamas\\"")
Lying on a stretcher in the heart of Little Havana, Ram\u00f3n Sa\u00fal S\u00e1nchez, president of the Cuban exile group Democracy Movement, continued the seventh day of a hunger strike in protest of the alleged abuse of undocumented Cuban detainees in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n
At his side: fellow activist Jes\u00fas Al\u00e9xis G\u00f3mez, who has been on a hunger strike for 14 days.<\/p>\n
The exile group started protests in June in response to a cellphone video that purports to show Bahamian prison guards kicking detainees on the ground.<\/p>\n
The protests have continued even though the Bahamian government, in a letter to U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Miami, agreed Friday to look into the detainees\u2019 conditions.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez, 58, said the letter was insufficient, mainly because the Bahamian government continues to call the video a forgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t recognize the problem, how will you find a solution?\u201d said S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n
Garcia said in a statement that \u201cwe continue to make daily inquires to the Bahamian government and will continue to do so until there is a satisfactory resolution to these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two activists lay under a tent in the Cuban Memorial Plaza in Little Havana on Thursday, surrounded by signs, jugs of water and groups of friends and supporters.<\/p>\n
Among those who visited the pair on Thursday was Miami Mayor Tom\u00e1s Regalado, who said he intended to use his personal money to help Democracy Movement with the $15 it must pay the city daily for a permit to continue using the plaza.<\/p>\n
Regalado said he has known S\u00e1nchez as a friend for 25 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what they\u2019re doing is a heroic act, and the Bahamas should heed their call,\u201d Regalado said. \u201cBut I\u2019m worried about their health.\u201d<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez has staged five hunger strikes in the past, one of which lasted 25 days and ended with him in a coma. He has since developed diabetes and, over the course of this strike, has lost 13 pounds.<\/p>\n
G\u00f3mez, who takes credit for providing the detainees with the cellphones they used to record the controversial video, said he is willing to die if it will resolve the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main objective is for the detainees to obtain their freedom,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when my hunger strike will end. Otherwise I will die here.\u201d<\/p>\n
By David Noriega
\nThe Miami Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cubans in Florida continue a hunger strike in protest of the alleged abuse of undocumented Cuban detainees in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1929,1494],"class_list":["post-37901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-cubans","tag-detention-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}