Raúl Castro
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.
Reporters sans frontières - Cuba (4 May 2009)
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=13406
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