When it comes to Cuba, you cannot re-state the obvious enough.
Human Rights Watch sums up conditions in Cuba today:
Cuba remains the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all forms of political dissent. In 2011 Raúl Castro’s government continued to enforce political conformity using short-term detentions, beatings, public acts of repudiation, forced exile, and travel restrictions.
In 2011 the Cuban government freed the remaining 12 political prisoners from the "group of 75" dissidents — human rights defenders, journalists, and labor leaders who were sentenced in 2003 in summary trials for exercising their basic rights — having forced most into exile in exchange for their freedom. Also in 2011 the government sentenced at least seven more dissidents to prison for exercising their fundamental rights, and human rights groups on the island said dozens more remain in prison.
The government increasingly relied on arbitrary arrests and short-term detentions to restrict the basic rights of its critics, including the right to assemble and move about freely. Cuba’s government also pressured dissidents to choose between exile and continued repression or even imprisonment, leading scores to leave the country with their families during 2011.
Read the whole HRW report here, starting at Page 236.
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