Although the situation today in Cuba, as far as we know, is not as bad as the genocidal practices carried out against the Tibetan people for the past forty years, or the genocide in Cambodia in the 1970's in which one third of the entire population was slaughtered. It does bear some similarity in its treatment of Cuban rafters and Citizens fleeing the dictatorship.
The situation in Cuba bears a greater similarity to the situation in Burma, where a brutal dictatorship squashes any and all dissent. A nation in which the supporters of democracy and human rights are constantly harassed, driven into exile, imprisoned, and in many cases tortured. It differs from Burma in the media's reaction to the tyrant of Burma and the tyrant of Cuba. One they condemn. The other they invite over for cocktails.
Cuba has the dubious distinction of having had the worlds longest serving political prisoner. Chanes de Armas served over 27 years in Castro's prisons. He had participated with Castro on the Assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953 and fought against Batista and for democracy. When Castro sought to betray the promise of restoring Cuban democracy; Chanes de Armas protested and paid the price for speaking out.
Currently there are over 1200 political prisoners in Cuban prisons. In Cuba, carrying a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is in itself considered a subversive act and punishable. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a report outlining the wholesale institutional denial of basic human rights. The past thirty seven years of dictatorship has charted new agonizing pages in the history of the treatment of political prisoners. The denial of basic medical care, torture and death are common occurences for Cuba's political prisoners.