Page last updated at 10:29 GMT, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 11:29 UK
Guillermo Farinas Mr Farinas has been on hunger strike since February.
(File photo from March)
Spain's foreign minister is in Havana and is expected to press the Cuban
government to free jailed dissidents.
Miguel Angel Moratinos is scheduled to meet his Cuban counterpart, Bruno
Rodriguez Parilla, on Tuesday.
Mr Moratinos also plans to meet the head of the Catholic Church in Cuba,
Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
According to an unofficial rights group, the number of political
prisoners has recently dropped, but the harassment of dissidents has
increased.
The Cuban Human Rights Commission said that another 800 people had been
detained this year, and then released without charge.
The dissident Guillermo Farinas has been on hunger strike since February
to highlight his demand that political prisoners in poor health be freed.
Mr Farinas is now in hospital, and doctors say his life is in danger.
'Mercenaries'
Mr Moratinos said he wanted to support the Catholic Church in Cuba in
its efforts to push for the release of detained dissidents.
The Church has become an important mediator in recent months and won
concessions from the government over the treatment of the activists.
Spanish diplomats hope that Mr Moratinos's visit will lead to a gradual
release of dissidents, and that those in poor health will be freed first.
Cuba denies there are political prisoners on the island, saying jailed
dissidents are common criminals or "mercenaries" working for the US.
But the BBC correspondent in Havana says that President Raul Castro has
been upset by international criticism following the death in February of
another jailed dissident on hunger strike, Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
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