Cuban dissident Coco Farinas ends hunger strike

HAVANA – A Cuban dissident says fellow activist Guillermo Farinas has ended a nearly two-month hunger strike in response to an apparently false report about the European Parliament taking up his case.

Dissident Jorge Luis Artiles told The Associated Press on Monday that Farinas ended his protest because the European Parliament had taken action to condition ties with Cuba on the country granting dissidents more rights.

European Union officials said they had no information about the supposed “Farinas Amendment,” and a Miami-based Cuban-American group said the report had originated on a blog that was taken down by Monday evening.

Artiles said he and other dissidents had been asking Farinas to abandon the hunger strike that began July 20, his 25th such action demanding greater civil rights in Cuba.