Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta
Cuban political prisoner Antonio Antonio Villarreal Acosta has been transferred to a sanitarium, or psychiatric hospital, according to a report posted at Diario de Cuba.
The move coincides as the Castro dictatorship prepares to move some political prisoners under an arrangement made with Catholic Church officials. However, Villarreal's transfer is apparently not part of that deal, as he was moved just hours after a meeting between the dictator Raúl Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega. (For an explanation for the strike-through, see below.)
Villarreal, who has been imprisoned since the "black spring" crackdown of 2003, reportedly suffers from psychological and other health problems.
Read more about him, here.
UPDATED, 6:20 p.m. EDT — The Damas De Blanco Association says the transfer is a precursor to Villarreal's eventual release.
UPDATED, May 26, 2010 — Subsequent reports, here and here, suggest I was probably incorrect earlier with my assessment that Villarreal's transfer was not tied to the discussions between the Castro dictatorship and the Catholic Church. Blame it on my limited Spanish abilities and the difficulty in sometimes determining what the dictatorship is doing.
As to the origin of Villarreal's psychiatric problems, Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez said it can be traced back to the time he spent in the punishment cells at the Boniato prison.
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