Titled New Castro, Same Cuba, the report by Human Rights Watch details a skein of cruel pressures on dissidents, relatives and friends that contradict initial hopes that Raúl Castro would be different.

"Castro inherited a system of abusive laws and institutions. . . . Rather than dismantle this repressive machinery, Raúl Castro has kept it firmly in place and fully active,'' said the report, unveiled Wednesday in Washington.

It noted some changes in tactics since Raúl Castro officially took power in early 2008: The growing use of short-term "arbitrary detentions'' -- 532 reported in the first half of 2009 versus 325 in all of 2007 -- and at least 40 prosecutions for "dangerousness,'' a charge less often used by Fidel Castro.

"But repression in Cuba under Raúl is not so different than it was under Fidel,'' the report's researcher and author, Nik Steinberg of Human Rights Watch's Americas section, told El Nuevo Herald. ``If you're a dissenter, your experience is still going to be abysmal.''

Although the report emphasized that "there is no question the Cuban government bears full and exclusive responsibility for the abuses,'' it also proposed Washington lift the U.S. embargo and forge a multinational effort to improve human rights on the island.

Steinberg said Human Rights Watch undertook the inquiry because of the perception that the new Castro had improved the situation in Cuba, Cuba's warming relations with Europe and the effort to readmit it to the Organization of American States.

"We wanted to put on the table where Cuba stands on human rights,'' he said in a telephone interview from Washington.

Cuba has long justified its repression of dissidents as a necessary protection from U.S. hostility. ``However, in the scores of cases . . . examined for this report, this argument falls flat,'' the 120-page document noted.

Steinberg, who spent two weeks in Cuba this summer doing interviews in seven of the island's 14 provinces, worked in secret because the Havana government did not reply to Human Rights Watch requests for meetings to discuss the human rights situation.

In its most bleak chapter, titled "State of Fear,'' the report details grimly how the repression has created a profound ``climate of fear'' that has led mothers, brothers and lovers to cut contacts with dissidents.

"Fear is a central part of the Cuban government's strategy of isolation, which pressures friends and family members to sever ties with dissidents,'' the report noted. "This isolation, together with other forms of harassment, takes a significant emotional and psychological toll and . . . may lead to depression or lasting psychological problems.''

It quoted human rights advocate Roberto Marrero la Rosa as reporting that his daughter-in-law was told by government officials that if she wanted to keep her job in a prosecutor's office, she would have to divorce her husband and put their child up for adoption. When she refused, she was fired.

Enyor Díaz Allen, a dissident in Guantánamo, reported his mother cut off contacts with him because of police pressures, and former political prisoner Digzan Saavedra Prat reported his brother stopped talking to him after being threatened with the loss of his job.

"In the city, no one is allowed to talk to me. People who come to my house are immediately called by state security and reprimanded,'' Eduardo Pacheco Ortiz, a former political prisoner in Matanzas, was quoted as saying.

"It's like having someone plant a boot right in the middle of my chest, and applying so much pressure I can hardly breathe,'' the report quoted René Velásquez Gonzales, the son of political prisoner Ramón Velásquez Toranzo, as saying.

Among the rights group's other findings:

• While dissident groups are ``small and significantly isolated,'' their ``marginalization is evidence not of the lack of dissent in Cuba, but rather of the state's ruthless efficiency in suppressing it.''

• When it comes to dissidents, Cuba systematically violates due process rights recognized by most Western nations. Alexander Santos Hernández is quoted as saying he was arrested at 5:50 a.m. and sentenced at 8:30 a.m. to four years.

• Prisons "are overcrowded, unhygienic and unhealthy, leading to extensive malnutrition and illness.''

• Security officials routinely use short-term detentions ``to harass dissidents or prevent them from participating in groups or activities considered `counterrevolutionary.' ''

• Dissidents are "beaten, publicly humiliated and threatened by security officers and groups of civilians tied to the state.''

• They are `denied work, fired from jobs and fined, placing significant financial strains on their family.''

• They are ``subjected to invasive surveillance, which violates their privacy and gathers information that can later be used to imprison them.''

On its proposal for a new U.S. policy, Human Rights Watch Americas director José Miguel Vivanco said the embargo is ineffective and imposes indiscriminate hardships on the Cuban people. The European Union and Canada's "constructive engagement'' also have failed to push Cuba toward improved human rights.

The report proposes that Washington lift the embargo, then form a united front with the EU, Canada and Latin American democracies to give Cuba six months to free all political prisoners or face a new set of coordinated sanctions.

"It's not easy, but not unrealistic,'' Vivanco said. "If the Obama administration is serious about developing a policy that has some impact on Cuba, it needs to work with other democracies around the world.''