Report: Raul Castro regime 'brutal'

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Cuba is continuing Fidel Castro's policy of imprisoning political opponents and those it considers "dangerous," a report released Wednesday says.

The government of President Raul Castro, Fidel's brother, has refused to end the Communist country's repressive actions, Human Rights Watch said in the report, "New Castro, Same Cuba."

"In his three years in power, Raul Castro has been just as brutal as his brother," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

Cuba relies heavily on its criminal code offense of "dangerousness," which allows authorities to imprison people on suspicion they might commit a crime, the report says.

Human Rights Watch says it has data on 40 cases in which Cuban citizens exercising basic rights of expression were arrested and imprisoned for "dangerousness."

"We live 24 hours a day ready to be detained," a Cuban human rights campaigner told Human Rights Watch. Ten days after making that statement, he was arrested and sent to prison, the organization said.

The government also relies on other "draconian laws" to silence free speech, deny labor rights and criminalize dissent, the report said. Those tried under such laws are subject to abusive interrogations, denial of legal counsel, sham trials and "inhumane" prisons, Human Rights Watch said.