Cuba Networks - Internet and telecom

	AfroCubaWeb

Cuba Networks - Internet and telecom

The discussion around internet and telecom in Cuba generally ignores a salient fact: the size of the web pipe going to Cuba, a country of 11.5 million people, is the size usually allotted to a medium sized US company. If the US really wanted to advance Cuba's global communications, as the State Department claims, it would widen this pipe. Instead, they distribute expensive gear, including satellite gear, to their chosen people, an activity that would likely be illegal if carried out by Cubans in the US if they did not have the proper authorization, which they would surely be denied.

Internet in Cuba News

State Department: US Claims to Help Cubans Communicate Globally  12/16/2009 Along the Malecon

Plotting Cuba's digital revolution  12/15/2009 Along the Malecon: "I don't know if there are any specific regulations prohibiting smart phones that are activated in such countries as Mexico. I would imagine that some U.S. officials would love to flood Cuba with those, although the costs would high because of roaming charges. Perhaps U.S. officials hope to distribute some other kind of communication equipment. The U.S. government and its contractors have managed to pass out hundreds of thousands of short-wave radios in Cuba over the past decade, so it's not inconceivable that they could distribute mass quantities of electronic equipment."

La CIA utiliza la USAID como fachada, confirma alto funcionario de la agencia estadounidense  12/14/2009 Aporrea: por Eva Golinger

La corrupción en la campaña mediática del imperio contra América Latina  12/14/2009 Cuba periodistas: por Jean-Guy Allard - "Para alcanzar sus objetivos, la VOA usará las instalaciones de producción de Radio y TV Martí lo que, según el rotativo mafioso de Miami, ha alimentado "especulaciones de que las estaciones Martí acabarán pasando a formar parte de la VOA". Radio y TV Martí han sido sacudidos por varios escándalos de corrupción, en los últimos años. Lo más divertido es que Alberto Mascaró, quien anunció la nueva orientación de la VOA, es nada menos que el sobrino de la esposa de Pedro Roig, director general de Radio y TV Martí, corporación famosa por dedicarse a contratar a las amistades de sus "capos". Ex director de la Interamerican Military Academy de Miami, Roig fue formado por la CIA en Fort Benning al lado del terrorista internacional Luis Posada Carriles, como sicario de la Operación 40, con vistas a la fracasada invasión de Playa Girón."

Action against Cuba  12/13/2009 ZZ's Blog: "While The New York Times understates dramatically both the funding and government dependence of DAI, it does reveal an interesting aspect of the story. The detainment occurred on December 5 with no public disclosure by the Cuban government. The fact that US officials felt compelled to announce the detainment, confessing the detainee’s activities and his employment, suggests that there will likely be more exposed in the days to come."

Terrorism and Civil Society - The Instruments of US Policy in Cuba  12/12/2009 Counterpunch: by Philip Agee, former CIA officer, published 8/2003 - "Actually the new program was not really new. Since its founding in 1947, the CIA had been deeply involved in secretly funding and manipulating foreign non-governmental voluntary organizations. These vast operations circled the globe and were targeted at political parties, trade unions and businessmen's associations, youth and student organizations, women's groups, civic organizations, religious communities, professional, intellectual and cultural societies, and the public information media. The network functioned at local, national, regional and global levels. Media operations, for example, were underway continuously in practically every country, wherein the CIA would pay journalists to publish its materials as if they were the journalists' own."

Entregan a bloguera medalla hecha “con plata de la dictadura de Batista”  12/9/2009 Aporrea: por Jean-Guy Allard - "Según los organizadores del “acto”, la condecoración es compuesta “por un peso de plata de los que circulaban” en los tiempos de la dictadura sanguinaria de Fulgencio Batista. Los fundadores del Comité paramilitar de la FNCA y que hoy dirigen el CLC, entre los cuales Diego Suarez, Alberto Hernández Alberto Hernández y Ninoska Pérez-Castellón (esposa del terrorista Roberto Martin Pérez, encabezaron las ágapes entrecortadas de discursos caracterizados por su fanatismo de extrema derecha. El comité paramilitar de la FNCA sufragó a Posada Carriles durante sus campañas de terror, en 1997, en territorio cubano y orientaron la compra de un millonario arsenal de armas por Antonio “Toñin” Llama, destinado a acciones terroristas de gran envergadura."

Marketing war heats up among Cuba’s “dissidents”  11/23/2009 CubaDebate: "The interview President Barack Obama granted the “blogger” Yoani Sánchez is the culmination of a project I feel like calling Operation Marketing; aimed as it is at the promotion and visibility of a new counter-revolutionary figure in Cuba, in the face of the worn out and battered “dissidence,” fighting like a pack of wolves with fangs bared in search of their prey: money. ...Without cross-checking the facts and without verifying anything, plenty of media ran with the story about the “kidnapping” and “beating” of the famous “blogger.” Hundreds of articles circled the planet from one end to the other on that story, which Yoani herself could not back up, even with the BBC, when she could not present any proof of the blows she’d received. But not everyone got on the boat of lies, and many have been questioning the script. One skeptic was the La República newspaper, who went to look for the doctors who attended Yoani and found that none of them found the least physical evidence for the supposed aggression."

Cuba: Broadband and Other Such Matters  11/18/2009 Cuba-L-Analysis: by Nelson P. Valdés - "The foreign press stationed in Cuba claims that a dissident in Havana has a blog that is translated into 16 or more languages and has from 1 to 14 million visits a month. That is impressive for anyone worldwide. For someone in Cuba it borders on a Fatima-like miracle.[7] From a logistical standpoint, this is an unusual accomplishment. Is it possible for such traffic to be handled by Cuba today? Who is/are the administrator[s] of the web pages in all these languages? Translation is complicated, time-consuming, and a worldwide translation team is costly. How is this work done? How is it paid for? And what is the mechanism for transferring this payment?"

US Loosens Internet Restrictions on Iran and Cuba  10/30/2009 Internet & Democracy Blog, Harvard Law: "Arguing that access to the flow of information on the Internet in Iran and Cuba is in line with US interests, the US Treasury has asked Google and Microsoft to give users in those two countries access to their chat services. This is a smart move, but just the beginning of what should be done to increase the flow on online speech in those countries."

Cuba cutting Internet access  5/7/2009 Sun Sentinel: "Cuba is further limiting access to the World Wide Web for its citizens, in what many believe is an effort to rein in a small but increasingly popular group of bloggers who are critical of the government. Only government employees, academics and researchers are allowed their own Internet accounts, which are provided by the state, but only have limited access to sites outside the island. Ordinary Cubans may open e-mail accounts accessible at many post offices, but do not have access to the Web. Many got around the restrictions by using hotel Internet services. But a new resolution barring ordinary Cubans from using hotel Internet services quietly went into place in recent weeks, according to an official with Cuba's telecom monopoly, hotel workers and bloggers."

Plans to expand Internet access in Cuba prompt censorship warnings  4/20/2009 NextGov

Cuba’s Mobile Opening  7/3/2008 Internet & Democracy Blog, Harvard Law

I&D Budapest Session 4: Internet, Democratization and Authoritarian Regimes  6/26/2008 Internet & Democracy Blog, Harvard Law: "There is Internet in Cuba, all through satellite. There is also a large parallel market that operates vis-a-vis ICTs. When Joshua and Gwendolyn were in Cuba they decided to put a sign up “Free Internet Access Available Here” in a marginalized neighborhood. People knew what the Internet was and suggested they take the sign down with haste lest they get in trouble. Flash drives are also widely used to share non state-controlled information. So Gwendolyn and Joshua have developed a device that allows for the rapid copying of flash drives without the need for a computer. This means that data on flash drives can be copied during a taxi ride, for example. The device also includes a small LCD screen and a built-in speaker. It can be operated using batteries and/or solar power. In addition, the device can be plugged into a television to watch video clips since there are virtually no computers in Cuba while one in five Cubans own a TV."

Will Cuba’s “Cyber Rebels” Help Set it Free?  3/8/2008 Internet & Democracy Blog, Harvard Law

Of Necessity and Humanity: What Cuba Can Teach Us About Ourselves and Our Own Technology  3/5/2008 Etech

Millions Spent Subverting 'Enemies,' Stifling Dissent  2/15/2001 Wisdom Fund: "Consider the U.S. Central Information Agency's disinformation program begun late in the 1940s and early 1950s. This program eventually involved most of the major private institutions in American life (John Harwood, "O What a Tangled Web the CIA Wove," Washington Post, February 26, 1967). "It was not enough for the United States to arm its allies, to strengthen government institutions, or to finance the industrial establishment through economic and military programs," wrote Mr. Harwood. "Intellectuals, students, educators, trade unionists, journalists and professional men had to be recruited directly through their private organizations."

Links /Enlaces

Cuban Internet

Internet World Stats: Cuba
www.internetworldstats.com/car/cu.htm

YEAR	Users	Population	% Pen.	GDP p.c.*	Usage Source
2000	60,000	11,124,665	0.5 %	US$ 2,535	ITU
2001	120,000	11,295,969	1.1 %	US$ 2,648	ITU
2006	190,000	11,365,124	1.7 %	US$ 3,059	ITU
2008	1,310,000	11,423,952	11.5 %	US$ 3,059	ITU