Cuba has 60 political prisoners: dissident group

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / AFP

Havana (AFP) - Cuba is holding 60 political prisoners, half as many as a year ago, though the number could increase again because the communist government continues to "criminalize" dissent, a rights group said Friday.

Eleven more dissidents are out of jail on probation, bringing the total number targeted by the justice system "for political reasons or through politically motivated proceedings" to 71, said the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

"The risk that the number of these prisoners will increase remains latent as long as the regime continues to criminalize the exercise of all civil and political rights," said the group, which does not have legal status but is tolerated by President Raul Castro's government.

Cuba freed 53 people identified as political prisoners by the United States as part of the historic rapprochement the former Cold War foes announced last December.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-60-political-prisoners-dissident-group-230350395.html

[craigmatic]

1. I bet they still have less of a percentage of their total population locked up than the US does.

[Little Tich]

2. True, but one country having a a significant portion of its population in prison,

can't be compared to another jailing a few for their political beliefs. Both are wrong, but in very different ways.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Also no history of genocide, massacres, torture, etc. n/t