The number of politically motivated arrests and detentions in Cuba skyrocketed to just shy of 8,900 in 2014, a leading Cuban human rights group reported Monday.
In December, there were at least 489 such arrests, bringing the total for the year to 8,899, according to the unofficial Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. That's 38.5 percent more than the number in 2013, and more than four times the group recorded in 2010.
The actual amount of repression may vary. Monitoring human rights abuses in Cuba is not for the easily inntimidated, and it's not like the Castro regimes feels it should be held accountable for how it oppresses the population.
But when considered with other tallies reported by other human rights groups, the picture is clear: Repression in Cuba exploded in 2014, just as the the Castro dictatorship succeeded in winning a new lifeline from Washington without having to even promise to improve its abysmal human rights record.
The pace of repression, as measured by the human rights group, had slowed in the latter months of the year. But the 489 arrests recorded in December was the highest montly count since the 632 arrests in August.
Of the arrests in December, about 230 happened on Dec. 10 when activists tried to commemorate World Human Rights Day; and about another 70 happened on Dec. 30, after the regime denied permission for a demonstration at which participants would be able to publically voice their grievances with the dictatorship, according to the human rights commission.
Those two big crackdowns bookended the Dec. 17 announcement that Alan Gross had been released from a Cuban prison and that the United States was extending full diplomatic recognition to the dictatorship in Havana.
The Associated Press has more:
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation recorded 8,899 short-term detentions of dissidents and activists in 2014. That was about 2,000 more than the previous year and four times as many as in 2010, said the group's head, Elizardo Sanchez.
The detentions can last for a few hours or a few days, but do not lead to prison time. Some people have been detained several times in a month, so the total number of people detained is lower.
Sanchez said his group counts about 90 people held in prison for political reasons ? less than half the figure five years ago.
The report also said dissidents inside Cuba did not know who was on the list of 53 whom the U.S. asked Cuba to release as part of a detente announced last month. Neither the U.S. nor Cuba has made the list public or said openly whether any of those on it have been released.
A U.S. official said on condition of anonymity Monday that some of the 53 had been released but efforts to secure the release of the dissidents was a "work in progress." The official wasn't authorized to provide details on who has been freed. The official said the release of all the dissidents wasn't a prerequisite for planned talks in Cuba between the Obama administration and Cuban officials later this month.
The numbers are dramatic but if the "U.S. official" quoted by the AP is to be believed, Cuba's human rights record, or lack thereof, doesn't really make a difference to what is happening between the two countries.
Learn more about the arrests recorded in December by the Cuban human rights commission, here.
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