Dissident Guillermo Fariñas's health has taken a turn for the worse probably caused by a bacterial infection. According to his wife, Clara Pérez Gómez, the independent journalist and opposition leader, complains of acute body aches and "does not even want to talk."

His family awaits the results of a blood culture, although they fear that it may come back positive for the very dangerous bacterium staphylococcus aureus. A couple of weeks ago, this bacterium caused him a severe infection that he attributed then to the unsanitary conditions at Arnaldo Milián Provincial Hospital, in Santa Clara, Cuba, in which he has been interned since March 11th.

Doctors at the hospital decided to stop intravenous feeding (water, sugars, amino acids, and other basic elements to ameliorate the consequences of his prolonged hunger strike) because of a very high fever. "Since Sunday morning, Fariñas has not received any sort of nourishment."

She added that this situation will definitely worsen the already precarious health of the dissident who refuses to abandon his hunger strike which began more than a month ago as protest for the death of another opposition activist: Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Agenda for a Transition in Cuba, an organization to which Fariñas belongs, presented the government of Raúl Castro with a "humane" formula to end the crisis. It consists of a popular referendum so that Cubans can vote on the fate of all remaining political prisoners.

The regime, that calls Fariñas's hunger strike "blackmail", has not made any public declarations on the proposal. However, a day after it came to light, Security of State (Cuba's repressive political police) detained Rafael León Rodríguez, general coordinator of Agenda for a Transition in Cuba.