The Cuban journalist Guillermo Fariñas, who has been on hunger strike for over a month according to UPI, today refused the medical help of the Spanish government, stating that he was willing to die for his cause reports the Washington Post.

Fariñas began his strike on 24 February, a day after dissident prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died following an 85-day hunger strike for improved prison conditions reports The Guardian.

Fariñas said he appreciated the offer of the Spanish government to take him to Spain in a helicopter ambulance and grant him asylum, but he did not want to be exiled from his country. He said: “If I leave they will never let me back in.”