Leading Cuban dissident hospitalized

(AP) The wife of a leading Cuban dissident who was once a state economist says her husband has been hospitalized with serious liver problems.

Miriam Leiva tells The Associated Press that her 71-year-old husband Oscar Espinosa Chepe has been on an intravenous drip at a Havana hospital for more than a week and was unable to even drink liquids until Monday morning,.

Leiva describes her husband's condition as "delicate" and says it is too early to tell if he will recover.

Chepe has been a frequent critic of free market economic changes undertaken by President Raul Castro, which he says do not go far enough

The island's small opposition community is already reeling from the death of two leading voices in less than a year.