President of Council of State and prime minister
After standing down provisionally for health reasons on 31 July 2006,
Fidel Castro passed the reins of power definitively to his younger
brother Raúl, the defence minister, on 24 February 2008. Despite hinting
at the possibility of a limited opening and adopting a few measures to
relax economic control, the Council of State's new president has not
loosened the state's tight grip on news and information. The transition
period and Raúl Castro's first few months in sole charge saw continuing
harassment of independent journalists including police brutality,
summonses and searches by State Security (the political police) and
detention for short periods. Nineteen of the journalists arrested during
the March 2003 "Black Spring" continue to serve jail terms ranging from
14 to 27 years in appalling prison conditions. With a total of 23
journalists detained, Cuba is the world's second biggest prison for the
media, after China.
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