The Associated Press

HAVANA -- The wife of a jailed Cuban dissident demanding her husband be transferred to the capital for medical treatment refused to leave her spot in a park Wednesday after an authority told her the government was working on her case.

Bertha Soler Fernandez, protesting delays in the transfer since Tuesday morning, vowed to stay until she saw her husband in person.

``I am going to wait patiently here,'' Soler said.

A government official approached Soler Wednesday afternoon, some 30 hours after she planted herself in a park across from Havana's Revolution Plaza.

Soler then met with the official in nearby offices for nearly an hour, during which time she said he told her the request was being dealt with.

``He told me they are trying to find a solution to the case,'' she said.

Soler said her husband Angel Moya Acosta is suffering from severe back pain due to a herniated disc in his prison cell in the eastern province of Granma.

On Aug. 10, Soler said authorities told her they would grant her request to temporarily transfer her husband to a civilian hospital in Havana.

But more than 55 days later, he has yet to arrive, and Soler said she would stay in the park until she sees him or authorities arrest her _ whichever comes first.

Moya is a human rights activist sentenced to 20 years in jail. He was imprisoned along with 75 other dissidents picked up in a major government crackdown in April of 2003.

Soler, who went to the park with bedding, food and water, was joined by five other women whose husbands, brothers or sons are also in jail for opposing the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Such public protests are rare in communist Cuba, though the women have launched marches and candlelight vigils since the crackdown.

There was no public government reaction to the protest.

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