The assessment came as President Barack Obama says he wants to “recast” ties with Cuba and Congress is considering lifting a ban on U.S. travel to the Communist-run island 90 miles (145 km) from Florida.
Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul in July, 2006 and formally stepped aside as president last year because of illness.
Raul Castro has relied in particular on a Cuban law that lets the state imprison people even before they commit a crime, Human Rights Watch said.
The group documented more than 40 cases under Raul Castro in which Cuba has imprisoned individuals for “dangerousness” because they sought to do things such as stage peaceful marches or organize independent labor unions.
In addition, 53 prisoners who were sentenced in a 2003 crackdown on dissidents under Fidel Castro are still in jail, the report by the global human rights monitor said.
Systematic repression has created a climate of fear among Cuban dissidents, and prison conditions are inhumane, said Human Rights Watch, whose researchers traveled to the island for two weeks during the summer for their report.
Jail is only one of the tactics used, it said. “Dissidents who try to express their views are often beaten, arbitrarily arrested, and subjected to public acts of repudiation.”
In one recent well-publicized example, Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said she was beaten this month by men she thinks were state security agents.
