At the time, the authorities stated that just six of the 166 men still held were classified as hunger-strikers, and that five were being force-fed through tubes inserted up their nose and into their stomachs — these men all being long-term hunger-strikers; and it is alarming that at least one of them has been on a hunger strike since 2005.

It was, to be frank, inconceivable that the hunger strike had been invented by the prisoners, when attorneys reported visiting their clients and seeing that they had lost 20 to 30 pounds in weight. However, it took until March 15, as Carol Rosenberg reported for the Miami Herald, for “the first admission of a protest” to be made by the authorities.