Do not forget the invisible ones ...

... do not forget Normando Hernández González.

Yarai Reyes returned with somber news, after her semi-monthly visit last week with her husband, a 37-year-old Cuban independent journalist arrested during the "black spring" of 2003, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Apparently, the benefits of Cuban health care have not been extended to Hernández, as he continues to suffer from malabsorption and other ailments that can be traced, at least in part, to the awful conditions he has faced while in prison.

"He had a lot of nausea, his hands shook, and he couldn't eat the prison food," Reyes told journalist Miriam Leiva, for a story posted at CubaNet.

Hernández's bad digestive health has dropped his weight to about 117 pounds, and he is so weak that someone had to carry for him a bag of items Reyes had brought to the prison.

Almost a year ago, Reyes petitioned the government to grant her husband a medical parole, but there has been no response.

Similarly, the dictatorship has rejected an offer by the government in Costa Rica to grant Hernández a visa so he could emigrate to Central America.

Jeremy Gerard, an editor for Bloombery News, this morning, writes more about Hernández:

Hernández González was arrested on March 18, 2003, during a crackdown that netted 75 journalists and other alleged dissidents. After brief trials, most of which reportedly lasted less than a day, they were sentenced to prison terms of as long as 25 years. According to human-rights organizations monitoring the situation, 59 of the 75 remain in prison.

At the time of his arrest, Hernandez Gonzalez was the head of the Camaguey College of Independent Journalists. ``It was a group established by Normando,'' says his mother, who now lives in Miami. ``The headquarters was at my house, in Camaguey. They are all in jail now.''

The group's 10 writers, of whom Hernández González was the youngest, were charged with violating Article 91 of the Cuban Criminal Code for writing stories that tracked government abuses and mismanagement by social-service agencies, according to a report by the PEN American Center, a watchdog group that publicizes human-rights violations against writers around the world.

In April, PEN announced that Hernández González would receive its 21st annual PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. The $10,000 award honors ``international literary figures who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression,'' according to Larry Siems, director of the project and of PEN's international programs.

``They're going to kill him,'' Goldsmith, a historian, author and philanthropist, said in an interview on June 25. ``The award is emblematic of everything we do, but in this particular case we tried to take the person in the most jeopardy.''

Read the whole thing here.

Meanwhile, BosNewsLife News Center has updates on two other Cuban political prisoners, Dr. Luis Milan Fernandez and the journalist Pedro Argüelles Moran.

For more on how you can show your support for Normándo Hernández and other Cuban political prisoners, visit Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty.