By Bridget Johnson, your guide to Journalism

This news is so fresh that the first images of Little Havana partying aren’t yet in to wire services — but if the first rumors of Fidel Castro’s death a couple years back gave any indication, then party they will. Forty-nine years after leading an armed revolt against Fulgencio Batista and establishing a communist state, Fidel Castro — 81 and ailing for some time — says he will refuse any reappointment as president and commander in chief. His brother Raul, whom he christened interim leader upon having intestinal surgery in 2006, is expected to be named Cuba’s new ruler. Don’t expect Castro’s voice to fade, though, from directing matters of state as first secretary of the country’s only allowed political party.

Reflecting upon the legacy that Castro has left from 49 years of iron-fisted rule:

• A country where citizens have no say in their government, where the “Black Spring” crackdown of 2003 put 75 additional prisoners of conscience — human-rights activists, labor activists, independent journalists — behind bars, the majority of which are still languishing there today.

• A black hole for free press and freedom of information, where private citizens cannot own computers or access the Internet without special government authorization.

• An island where citizens do not have free movement. From Human Rights Watch: “The Cuban government forbids the countryÂ’s citizens from leaving or returning to Cuba without first obtaining official permission, which is often denied. …The government also frequently bars citizens engaged in authorized travel from taking their children with them overseas, essentially holding the children hostage to guarantee the parentsÂ’ return. Given the widespread fear of forced family separation, these travel restrictions provide the Cuban government with a powerful tool for punishing defectors and silencing critics.”

• A country where hundreds of thousands have risked their lives in makeshift crafts to flee Cuba and make it to the shores of the United States — and sometimes not making it at all.

But to really see Fidel’s legacy, check out Cuba Archive, a nonprofit organization based in New Jersey composed of various Cuban intellectuals and human-rights activists, which is compiling an online database of documented cases of victims of the Castro regime:

“The comprehensive effort documents cases irrespective of political or ideological attributes of the victim or perpetrators. To date, over 9,000 records have been entered into the electronic system, which grows as additional cases are entered and research and outreach efforts expand.


…The state led by Fidel and Raúl Castro emerges responsible for thousands of firing squad executions and extrajudicial killings. The archive reports over one thousand deaths in prisons, police stations, or State Security offices, as well as dozens of civilians murdered while trying to escape by sea or seeking asylum in foreign embassies and at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo. Pregnant women assassinated in political prisons and religious leaders and minors executed by firing squad are part of the tragic record. Nine extrajudicial killings and five deaths of prisoners for lack of medical attention are recorded for 2007.”