Internet for All? Not in Cubaland

MOA, Cuba - August 2 (Felipe D. Ramos Leiva, APLO / www.cubanet.org)

Recently, Cuban government officials assured the audience of the nightly TV political program Round Table that in Cuba, the Internet is open to everyone, so independent journalist Juan Carlos Garcell and myself tried to verify the statement.

At mid morning Monday, July 31, we went to the ETECSA (phone company) offices and applied to the clerk for a prepaid card to use the Internet at the phone company's cybercafe. The woman replied that the cards were only available in dollars, not in pesos. We agreed to pay in dollars, but another glitch developed; she told us the service is only available to foreigners.

The two computers in the cybercafe were being used by African students who have been in Cuba for years.

We asked the phone company's employee whether she knew that independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas has been on a hunger strike for months, demanding that Cubans not be forbidden free access to Internet.

She said that it isn't a matter of access being forbidden; rather what happens is that the service is limited to foreigners on account of the limited resources available.

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in fact, the Cuban government was so eager to keep Cubans from using the internet that it arrested 10 journalists about three years ago for publishing their reports on the Internet (they happened to think Castro was a dictator and that democratic elections should be held. go figure).

to make it a more interesting haul, the authorities also arrested 24 political activists that same day. on a similar vein, i wonder why there are no newspapers in Cuba other than those printed by the Government. not because of lack of freedom of the press (oh no!); sadly, there's not enough paper to share with non-government journalists. right.