Catch. Threaten. Release.
That's the script for repression under Castro 2.0.
Fidel Castro was the master of the sweeping crackdowns, culminating with the "black spring" roundup in 2003 of some 75 journalists, librarians, human rights activists and other dissidents who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Raul Castro, perhaps more sensitive to appearances and the attention being paid to his governance, has re-branded, if you will, the mechanics of his police-state. His methods perhaps are more subtle, but they are just as insidious and as revealing of the dictatorship's vile nature.
A knock on the door.
A ride to the police station sitting between two goons.
Hours alone in a jail cell.
Warnings and threats about how much harder it could be if they continue working as a journalist or attending "counter-revolutionary meetings."
There have been some exceptions - Raul has not been afraid to make good on some of those threats - but all the bluster by the police is usually followed by police releasing the detainee.
Cuban independent journalist Julio Beltrán Iglesias last week experienced the new script first-hand.
He was caught.
About noon on Monday, May 18, three State Security officers arrested Beltrán as he was leaving his home in Havana and drove him to a local police station.
He was threatened.
The thugs warned Beltrán not to attend "counter-revolutionary events convened by terrorists," unless he was prepared to be sent to prison.
He was released.
About 5 hours later, the police let Beltrán go.
Catch. Threaten. Release.
Raul Castro may have re-branded the dictatorship's repressive ways.
But he really hasn't changed anything.
If fact, Raul's script may be more dangerous because it has the potential to hide what is really happening in Cuba today and what he is really about.
The wishful thinkers and the useful idiots - call them the "the caught, the fooled and the embarrassed" - looking for anything on which to hang their calls for change in how the United States and the rest of the world deals with Cuba think Raul is somehow different. And as such, deserving of a new approach.
But as Julio Beltrán Iglesias and so many other Cubans can testify, nothing has really changed.
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