Uncommon Sense learns that the number of Cuban political prisoners dropped last year, but “there also were more than 1,500 arrests and detentions, albeit temporary, of opponents to the Castro dictatorship”, while Havana Times reports that the island “has ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearance, a new indication of this Caribbean nation’s will to strengthen its cooperation with international mechanisms of promotion and protection of human rights.”