The victories are few and far between, and usually small, for Cuban political prisoners embraced in constant struggle with the Castro dictatorship. So when they do happen, usually because of the help of family, friends or other allies, they are worthy of note.
Noelia Pedraza Jiménez last week achieved one of those small victories on behalf of her husband, the prisoner of conscience Ariel Sigler Amaya.
Pedraza told officials with State Security that if they did not transfer her husband — who has been ill for at least nine months and recently began showing symptoms of new ailments — she would stand vigil outside her husband's prison for as long it took for them to provide Sigler with the needed medical care.
Cutting their losses, the officials promised that Sigler would be transferred to a hospital, and of this morning, he had been admitted to a hospital in Cienfuegos.
Sigler, a co-founder with his brothers of the Independent Alternative Option Movement, was sentenced during the "black spring" crackdown of 2003 to 25 years in prison.
UPDATED, June 11, 2009
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