Ministers, Cuba
Fidel Castro passed the reins of power to his younger brother Raúl, the
defence minister, five days after falling ill on 26 July 2006 and
undergoing a major operation. Formally confirmed as President of the
Council of State on 24 February 2008, Raúl has behaved little better
than his brother as regards human rights, and the harassment of
independent journalists and bloggers has never stopped. It includes
police brutality, summonses and searches by State Security (the
political police) and detention for short periods.
The page has nonetheless been turned on the "Black Spring" crackdown of
March 2003. From July 2010 to March 2011, the regime freed a total of 52
dissidents jailed during the crackdown, a third of who had been running
or working for small independent news agencies. Most of them had to
agree to forced exile (in most cases in Spain) in exchange for their
release. Long one of the world's biggest prisons for journalists, Cuba
ceased to have any journalists in detention in April 2011 when it
released Albert Santiago Du Bouchet on condition that he take a one-way
ticket to Spain. He had been held for two years."
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