Some have hoped that Raúl Castro would begin a process of political reform in Cuba. In fact, more than one hundred political prisoners locked up under Fidel remain behind bars, and Raúl’s government has used sham trials to lock away scores more. These include more than 40 dissidents imprisoned for “dangerousness,” a charge that allows authorities to imprison individuals before they have committed a crime, on the suspicion that they might commit one in the future. Yet when outsiders hear of Cuba’s political prisoners, many think first of what the US embargo has done to Cuba, not what Cuba has done to its own people. The effect is to seal Cuba’s prisoners off from international sympathy and reinforce their prolonged solitude.
