| Summary: | In March 2002, on the very day that U.S. forces entered Iraq, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel castro alunchaed a major cracdown on peaceful Cuban political dissidents. The Iraqi operation was a surprisingly swift one and so was castro's. Within three weeks, the statue of the Cuban leader's old friend saddam Hussein had been toppled in central Baghdad; meanwhile, Castro had summarily tried and imprisoned 75 Cubans. Their sentences for supposed crimes against the country's security-averaged 20 years. Cuba-watchers have no doubt that Castro's crackdown was timed to take advantage of the world's preoccupation occurred in the first place. Like everything else relating to Cuba, the mass arrests provoked a flurry of speculation and wide-ranging interpretations among American observers. Cuban civil society may have been shaken by the onslaught, but it has not disappeared. Independent journalists continue to file stories about their jailed colleagues and about the dire reality in the country.
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