BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

WASHINGTON - At first, Bertha Soler Fernández prayed for the release of her husband and 74 other Cuban dissidents jailed during an island-wide crackdown last year. Then she pleaded to have her husband transferred to a Havana facility that could provide medical attention.

Frustrated by the government's inaction, Soler packed food and water, marched to Havana's Revolution Plaza -- the centerpiece of Cuba's communist landscape -- and vowed not to move until Angel Moya Acosta got what he needed.

The protest, joined by other wives in the same predicament, ended 41 hours later when state security cleared the park. But the bold action prompted a medical procedure for the prisoner and set a precedent for civil disobedience in Cuba that has empowered a group of ''Women in White,'' whose peaceful resistance has managed to make strides in the struggle for human rights, experts said.

''One thing they've been smart about is that they're asking for specific things the Cuban government can give,'' said Uva de Aragón, assistant director at Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute. ``If you start winning small battles, then you become a force to be reckoned with.''

Moya, a human rights activist, underwent surgery for a herniated disc Wednesday and was recovering in a prison medical ward in Havana with his wife at his bedside.

REACHED GOAL

''The objective was reached,'' protest participant Laura Pollán told The Herald in a telephone interview from Havana. ``We didn't expect it to be resolved so quickly, but they saw that we were determined to stay at the plaza as long as necessary.

''We were afraid to stage an act of this magnitude, but much stronger was our desire and conviction for what we were doing,'' said Pollán, 56, wife of jailed independent journalist Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, 60. ``Today, the person at risk was Moya. But tomorrow it could be the husband of any one of us.''

The women say they have no political agenda.

''We are a peaceful group, a group of women who are not at all political,'' said Beatriz Pedroso, 52, whose 60-year-old husband, independent journalist Julio César Gálvez, is imprisoned. ``But all these arrests have forced us to step forward to defend our families.

''What [Soler] did was very brave. The fact that she was able to get her husband transferred was a grand success,'' Pedroso said.

The dissident movement in Cuba has had little success in bringing about democratic change.

But peaceful marches, candlelight vigils and letters by the Women in White to government officials, including Fidel Castro, have received international attention and led to the release in June of six of the 75 government opponents who had become gravely ill.

Experts said the women's determination has offered a platform for others trying to obtain concessions.

''These women have tied the hands of the repressive apparatus,'' said Ileana Fuentes, president of Red Feminista Cubana, a Miami-based organization committed to helping women in Cuba become part of civil society. "They have, in effect, conducted the ultimate confrontation with the seat of power. They have overcome the mother of all fears.''

TACTICAL MOVE

The women deliberately chose the plaza for their protest because the site houses the government's Council of State, the head of government bureaucracy.

''What better place to protest than right in front of them? We had to do something to get a response,'' Pollán said. ``We have no preference for ideology, political or religious tendencies. What unites us is the pain from injustice, the pain of having our husbands taken away from us.''

Cuba experts said it is too soon to tell whether the Women in White will evolve into a major opposition movement, but the women have demonstrated that some objectives can be achieved even under a totalitarian regime.

''It would be very hard for the Cuban government to use a violent way to repress them,'' de Aragón said. ``There are certain codes of conduct with women in Cuba, and in most of the world, because the forces of power are generally in the hands of men. Women, if smart enough, can use their supposed weaknesses to become stronger.''

In letters addressed to Castro this week, two other wives pleaded for amnesty for husbands with deteriorating health: ''Mr. President, the solution is in your hands, only immediate liberty could lead to the recuperation of some of my husband's health,'' wrote Yamilé de los Angeles Llanes, wife of José Luis García Paneque, 39, a physician and independent journalist.

She told Agence France-Press in Havana that if there was no response to her letter ``the only solution we'll be left with is to return to the plaza and wait.''