12 Cuban political prisoners are documented to have died by hunger strike, demanding humane treatment. See Report of Work-in-Progress:   hunger_strike_victims_updated_3.1.2010

"Tyrants shake in the presence of men who are able to die for their ideals, after sixty days of hunger strike! Next to this example, what were the three days of Christ on Calvary, as a symbol down the centuries of human sacrifice?"   --Fidel Castro on Bobby Sands and the I.R.A. hunger strikers, 1981 (cited in Denis O'Hearn, "A hunger for justice," The Nation, May 6, 2006.)

Cuba later built a monument to the 10 hunger strikers who died, which Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, unveiled in Havana in December 2001.