10 years later, Cuba remains under the Castro 'black spring'

The Group of 75

Ten years ago this week, the United States launched its invasion of Iraq.

Under the cover of that distraction, the Castro dictatorship unleashed its secret police to round up 75 independent journalists, librarians, human rights activists and other dissidents, in a crackdown that became known as the "black spring."

I confess no recollection of that week's events in Havana and across the island. My attention as a journalist was on the conflict in the Middle East, and it would be more than 2 1/2 years before I started this blog.

But once I did start Uncommon Sense, my almost-immediate focus was on those members of the Group of 75 still in prison. I first profiled the imprisoned journalists, and then the others, all of whom had been designated by Amnesty International as "prisoners of conscience." Telling their stories, and those of other Cuban political prisoners, continues to be the primary mission of this blog.

Ten years after the "black spring," all of the prisoners are of jail. Most are in excile in Spain, the United States and elsewhere; about a dozen remain in Cuba; and at least two, Miguel Valdes Tamayo and Orlando Zapata Tamayo are dead.

Whether in exile or in Cuba, many of the former prisoners remain active in the struggle for a free Cuba, using their experiences in the Castro gulag to illustrate that 10 years later, Cuba remains slave to a brutal dictatorship.

Under the cover of much of the world's continued distraction from Cuba, under the cover of international indifference and ignorance and outright sympathy for their dictatorship, the Castros continue with some of the most repressive rule in the world. As Amnesty International explained last week, nothing has changed, it has only gotten worse:

On 18 March 2003, a group of 75 political dissidents were detained across Cuba in an unprecedented crackdown on spurious charges related to state security and, following summary trials, they were sentenced to long prison terms of up to 28 years.

They were subsequently declared prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International as they had been imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of fundamental freedoms.

In July 2010, following the intervention of the Cuban Catholic Church, the Cuban authorities agreed to release those of the 75 who remained in prison. However, the majority of them were forced into exile in Spain.

Those who refused to leave Cuba were kept in prison until early 2011. Although they were allowed to remain on the island their release was conditional - their prison sentences hang over them even though they are no longer confined.

Their release has not heralded a change in human rights policy in Cuba. The authorities remain determined to contain government critics with new tactics, including intimidation, harassment, multiple short-term detentions and restrictions on movement to stop them from carrying out their activities or as retaliation.

In spite of recent changes to the migration law which makes travel abroad easier for Cubans, the Cuban government continues to maintain a swathe of laws aimed at preventing political dissidents and human rights defenders from exercising their freedom of expression, association and assembly.

To read Uncommon Sense profiles of many of the Group of 75 prisoners, follow the links you can find here.