Under pressure from the government of Spain, Raul Castro has released four "dissidents" after years of imprisonment:

José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Omar Pernet Hernández, Alejandro González and Pedro Pablo Álvarez - described regular beatings, humiliation and arbitrary punishment with long periods of solitary confinement in cramped cells with cement beds.

They said they were deprived of food and water in conditions which resembled "a desert".

Arriving in Spain to be reunited with their families, they exposed the routine abuse of political prisoners which marked Castro’s five decades in power.

One of the four had been imprisoned for 21 years for opposing Castro's regime. Cuban jails still contain hundreds of political prisoners. It's too bad they aren't terrorists, instead of just being non-Communists. Then they might get some sympathy.

Posted by John at 5:24 PM  |    |