New Castro, Same Cuba

This report shows how Raúl Castro has kept Cuba’s repressive machinery firmly in place and fully active since being handed power by his brother Fidel Castro. Scores of political prisoners arrested under Fidel continue to languish in prison, and Raúl has used draconian laws and sham trials to incarcerate scores more who have dared to exercise their fundamental rights. In particular, the Raúl Castro government has relied on a "dangerousness" provision in the Criminal Code that allows authorities to imprison individuals before they have committed a crime, on the suspicion that they might to commit an offense in the future.