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NEWS
Internet in
Cuba: access barred
By Claudia Márquez Linares*
Havana
International Herald Tribune
La Nueva Cuba
December 13, 2003
HAVANA On the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society, which
ended Friday in Geneva, the director-general of Unesco declared on these
pages that "freedom of expression, as expressed in Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights … applies to the Internet as much
as it does the older forms of press and radio." ("The free flow of ideas
pays off," by Koichiro Matsuura, IHT, Dec. 9)
.Here in Cuba the government jails its citizens for distributing this
same Declaration and we do not enjoy freedom of expression in any media
whatsoever, not even in private conversations.
.Since my country was represented at this summit, I feel that as a Cuban
and as an enthusiast of Internet I can contribute a few clarifications.
.We have heard over and over again the government's data about the
number of computers installed in schools for the development of
information society since the earliest age.
.The Cuban delegation to the summit no doubt criticized the embargo
against Cuba and said that all the obstacles we Cubans have to accessing
the Web are due to the "imperialism" of the globalized world.
.But seen from here, the problem is not in globalization or imperialism
but in the lack of freedom. Cuban citizens cannot buy computers, only
state enterprises can.
.Although, as for other things, the black market does wonders, there is
always the risk of losing it all. "Operation Windows," in which the
government orders searches and confiscates all electronic equipment that
was not bought in its monopolistic hard-currency shops, makes cybernauts
go clandestine.
.People hide their computers and give up connecting to the Internet in
order to protect their laptops. The lucky ones who have access to the
Web at work give - or sell - the password.
.There are two main Internet providers in the country and they offer
services to state enterprises and hotels for foreign tourists.
Individual access for local people does not exist.
.For the past few years there have been several cybercafes where Cubans
can surf the Web. The cheapest price is five dollars an hour, which
means that a physician would spend his whole monthly salary in four
hours. Given the slow connection, one needs to have rich cousins abroad
who send cash, or a foreign spouse.
.Entering most hotels where the Internet connection is faster is
forbidden to local citizens. The price there is between six and eight
dollars an hour - the monthly salary of a Cuban worker.
.Even if a Cuban manages to enter such a hotel, the Web sites that
address Cuban subjects from a perspective other than the one approved by
the Cuban government are blocked.
.Schools do have computers, but not the access to the Internet. A few
have a Cuban version of the Web on Intranet, which contains only those
Web sites that the government of Cuba put there.
.Perhaps the connection is so slow because hundreds of persons working
for the Ministry of Interior are checking on the traffic on the Web.
Although this has never been confirmed, everybody is convinced that the
e-mails are under state surveillance.
.A Cuban woman buying a card for Internet access was told by the
saleswoman, "Pornographic and counterrevolutionary materials are not
allowed." The saleswoman did not elaborate if the latter meant reading a
newspaper published in Miami, sending data on our husbands who are
political prisoners to Amnesty International, criticizing the government
through an e-mail or joining a chat group with an exiled Cuban. But she
did take the name of the card buyer and noted down the number.
.The Cuban paradox is that here the Internet is a tool that the
government uses to better control us, to catch its own citizens in this
tangled web it weaved.
*The writer is vice president of an independent association of Cuban
journalists, "Manuel Márquez Sterling" and co-editor of its samizdat
review, "De Cuba." Her husband, Osvaldo Alfonso Valdés, is serving an
18-year sentence for opposing the regime.
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