. . . for many years. Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, the Cuban prisoner of conscience, is to be released. For a news article, go here. Biscet, as readers of this site know, is an Afro-Cuban physician and democracy activist whose models are Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He has been a symbol of the opposition to the Castro dictatorship. He has also been an embarrassment to Castro supporters and apologists around the globe. In 2007, George W. Bush gave Biscet the Presidential Medal of Freedom (in absentia, of course). That was like him.

Not all Americans were happy about the medal. NPR was notably, nauseatingly sniffy. (Have they been in the news lately?) For some of my comments on the matter, go here, or here.

For years, many of us have been clamoring for Biscet to win the Nobel peace prize. He has been nominated this year — for instance by Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, on behalf of the Hungarian government. (Eastern Europeans have always been more supportive of Cuban democracy than have Western Europeans. Wonder why.) Now that he is on the outside, or will be, chances are that Biscet will not win the prize. He may have had no real chance before. But he will have his freedom, and he is vowing to continue working for reform in his country. To put that less weakly: for national freedom, after 50-plus years of dictatorship.

There will be time for proper analysis later. But for now, in a blogpost, I just say: Hurray.