More on Zapata (Updated)

The Cuban government is firing back on the issue of the death of Orlando Zapata, naming him in a Granma article (Spanish here, English here) and saying he was a common criminal who entered politics for convenience.

AP reports that Cuban television did a ten-minute news segment that presented interviews with doctors who treated Zapata and hidden-camera footage of Zapata’s mother thanking the doctors.

Here is video of the Cuban television report via the website of El Mundo in Spain. It includes recordings of conversations that Zapata’s mother and, separately, another dissident had with a Miami organization, the Directorio Democratico Cubano. The mother gives a positive account of the medical attention Zapata was receiving. (Update: Here's audio of a response from the mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo.)

Meanwhile, others are starting hunger strikes in protest of Zapata’s death. New York Times report here.

And blogger Reinaldo Escobar pulls back, connects Zapata’s death to other events last month, and asks what it all means. In English at the Huffington Post.