Washington - Cuba maintains its "repressive machinery" under new leader Raul Castro, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Wednesday. "Raul Castro inherited a system of abusive laws and institutions, as well as responsibility for hundreds of political prisoners arrested during his brother's rule," HRW said of the Cuban power transfer of 2006, from Fidel to Raul Castro.
"Rather than dismantle this repressive machinery, Raul Castro has kept it firmly in place and fully active," it said.
In the report entitled New Castro, Same Cuba, HRW demanded "effective pressure" on authorities in Havana on the part of the international community.
"Currently, this effective pressurewhether from Latin American countries, the United States, Canada, or Europeis lacking."
For HRW, communist Cuba uses "laws criminalizing dissent" to imprison critics, with the help of what the organization defines as "sham trials." Prisons are said to be "overcrowded, unhygienic, and unhealthy, leading to extensive malnutrition and illness."
The report is based on research carried out between January and November and included a fact-finding mission to Cuba without official permission in June and July, the group said.
HRW particularly drew attention to the "dangerousness" provision that allows Cuban authorities to imprison people even before they commit a crime, on the suspicion that they might do so.
"This 'dangerousness' provision is overtly political, defining as 'dangerous' any behavior that contradicts socialist norms. The most Orwellian of Cuba's laws, it captures the essence of the Cuban government's repressive mindset," the report said.
Under Raul Castro - who temporarily took over power from his brother in July 2006 and formally became Cuba's leader in February 2008 - "dangerous" activities included handing out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, staging peaceful marches and attempting to organize independent unions, among others cited by HRW.
However, critics are still active on the island.
"While this report documents a systematic pattern of repression, it does not intend to suggest that there are no outlets for dissent whatsoever in Cuba," HRW stressed.
"The last three years have, for example, witnessed the emergence of an independent Cuban blogosphere, critical lyrics by musicians, and most recently a series of government-organized public meetings to reflect on Cuban socialism."
Still, dissidents are "a small and significantly isolated segment of the population," and according to the report their impact on society as a whole is "incredibly limited."
