After some earlier confusion on my part, it does appear Antonio Villarreal Acosta is the first Cuban political prisoner to be transferred to a medical facility, under an arrangement worked out between the Castro dictatorship and Catholic Church officials, according to the Spanish newspaper La Razon.
Villarreal, imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003 and serving a 20-year sentence, was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, his nerves reportedly shot by the abuses he has suffered while in jail. Although at least one dissident questioned whether the move only shifted the location of where the dictatorship tortures Villarreal, according to the newspaper report.
As best as I can, I will try to keep track of which prisoners are transferred to hospitals or to jails closer to their homes as a gauge of the true significance of the new order between church and state in Cuba.
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