Cuba postpones tightened controls on Internet use

[Osolomia]

Mon Jan 26, 3:17 PM ET

HAVANA (AFP) - Cuba's state telephone company said it has postponed plans to limit Internet access for Cubans whose telephone bills are paid in local currency.

In a message to clients Saturday, the company ETECSA said the measures would not take effect that day as scheduled but at some unspecified time in the future.

The new regulations are a bid to stop password piracy and would not affect Internet access from phone service paid in US dollars.

Cuba charges that since it only has limited Internet access as a nation it can maintain only low volumes of customers. Social organizations should thus have priority to access the Internet while paying in Cuban pesos, worth 26 to the US dollar.

More...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1212&e=5&u=/afp/20040126/tc_afp/cuba_internet&sid=96001018

[Judi Lynn]

1. This story is far different from the wildly spun stories we saw earlier

We had some first class raving on the subject at that time from people who, if they take a look at this article will see they were profoundly off base.

[Osolomia]

2. The Batistianos and biased Dems have blinders glued to their faces

They don't want to know the facts, it'd spoil their hatemongering fantasies about Cuba.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. I'd Be Sceptical About Such Rationalizations Even If

I'd be sceptical about such rationalizations if a right-wing dictatorship was making such proposals. I'm certainly sceptical now. "Limited Internet access," Hah! Fidel's regime is a dictatorship, and like most dictatorships, can't stand the free flow of information and ideas.

Progessives playing knee-jerk aplogogists for Castro look every bit as hypocritical as right-wingers apologizing for deposed dictators like Chile's Pinochet or Spain's Francisco Franco or as deceitful as cover-up artists like Heritage Foundation flacks covering up the ugly truth about Guatemala's civil war. It's time for the good guys to stop playing Lillian Hellman.

[raifield]

4. 64Kbps among an entire nation?

I heard somewhere awhile ago that the entire country only has a pipeline 64Kbps wide. That's roughly a quarter of your basic broadband, if not less, and half a typical ISDN connection.

This article I found dates from 2000 though and Google is otherwise being rather unhelpful this morning.

http://www.carleton.ca/mpa/cjpa/articles/2000/reilly_2000.shtml

If Cuba is still stuck on 64Kpbs, then I'd probably take major steps to crack down on unofficial access, which is a problem in Cuba. If that means limiting access to only organizations, then I'd probably do that too.

I think, that to see if Castro really is the dictator many people say he is (I really have no opinion either way, having not enough information), then perhaps lift the embargo on Cuba and see what happens then.

[snooper2]

7. Whoever told you that is totally incorrect

Internet Service Providers = 5
Internet Users = 120,000 (2002)

Source:(taken with a grain of salt but usually pretty accurate)
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cu.html

[Osolomia]

8. Perhaps you need to look at non-US government sources!

Cuba
Access to the Internet despite the embargo
5 September 1997

Since 1961, Cuba has been under pressure because of the US embargo. As a result Cuba has been unable to obtain the most recent technology. This difficulty was partially solved by the then socialist countries, but as they have disappeared, Cuba no longer had the possibility to renew its technology. To set up the Cuban internet it was absolutely necessary to have direct access to the hardware market and the related support and service, as well as the up-dated documentation and information. Thanks to the great help from many people and some organisations such as the Internet Society, Cuban people have been able to learn and get information about how to set up the Cuban internet. The access to the hardware market has been possible through third countries, however we get material without the complete support/service and guaranty. We are also confronted with the increase in prices when buying through third parties. Despite all these problems due to the US embargo, now-a-days the Cuban internet has been established with a secure and complete connection to the Internet via a dedicated 64Kb SprintNet line.

Despite the establishment of the internet in Cuba, the national backbone bandwidth is just 64Kb, which is very little taking into consideration the requirements of the country. In addition, the telecommunications infrastructure in Cuba is based on very old installations with very old technology and analogue phone lines and old cable that produce a lot of noise.

In terms of Internet use, the government gives priority to research, medical and education centres. Research centres and public health institutions have full access to the Internet. In the area of education an educational intranet is being set up. It will be fully connected to the Internet when the national backbone bandwidth is wider. The Internet is also used in tourism via the web.

Ernesto Guido Montano , Cuba
http://www.connected.org/keyIssues/cu1.html

March 1997
Cuba, the Internet, and U.S. Policy
BY NELSON P. VALDÉS
http://www.trinitydc.edu/academics/depts/Interdisc/International/caribbean%20briefings/CubaInternet.pdf

If Americans were free to see Cuba for themselves and took your blinders off you’d see what everyone else in the world has known full well all along: Cuba’s telephone system is pre-Castro, efforts to update it have been thwarted by the USA’s embargo.

An Italian telecommunications company was in the process of updating it but was bought by a US company and had to pull out due to US embargo law. Mexico’s Domus has taken over the task as a simple Google search shows, hence as Cuba's ambassador stated a couple of days ago:

Snip/…

- It is not up to Cuba to be connected to the Internet at the speed it would like to or with as many independent channels or providers it can choose. Each time Cuba tries to add a new channel to the Internet, the US counterpart must procure the appropriate license from the US Treasury Department. Likewise, if an American company wants to open a new channel for Cuba or decides to upgrade the connection speed, a license must be issued.

- Cuba’s current connection to the so-called Infoband does not offer the appropriate bandwidth to meet the country’s requirements. The blockade compels Cuba to use an expensive and slow satellite-related bandwidth and connection. The problem could be solved with the connection of a fiber-optic cable between Cuba and the Florida Straits, but the US has not allowed so.

Meanwhile,

….. the US Government have allocated more than 25 million USD dollars to Internet sites based in Miami to “convey the truth” to the Cuban people.

http://www.cubadebate.cu/index.php?tpl=especiales-show¬iciaid=1573¬iciafecha=2004-01-25

[Osolomia]

5. Sceptical about "rationalizaions" based on facts?

A good Democrat clings to their ignorants bigoted fantasies, keeps their blinders firmly glued to their face and swallows the US government peopaganda hook, line and sinker no questions asked eh?

[Mika]

6. I'd be skeptical of your "rationalization".

"Progessives playing knee-jerk aplogogists for Castro look every bit as hypocritical as right-wingers apologizing for deposed dictators like Chile's Pinochet or Spain's Francisco Franco.."


The main difference, as the lead article mentions, is that the government of Cuba is reserving its limited internet communications system for social services - health care, education, research, etc. - whereas the right wing dictatorships you mention did no such good works for the social infrastructure of their respective countries. Everyone who has been to Cuba has seen that this is the case there - social services infrastructure are first and foremost, especially for children.


Cuba has lead the way in social arenas,

Learn from Cuba
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/learn.htm

[robcon]

9. Wow! Osolomia and Mika are in full apologist mode

The rationalizations and justifications always seem to boil down to one simplistic cause for the oppression of the Cuban people: the U.S. embargo. Somehow Cuba can't get the "technology" it needs from Canada or Europe, or can't trade with all the other countries in the world.

Next, they'll justify the arrest of Cuban librarians, and somehow blame it on the U.S. embargo. It's great to have one, simplistic cause for everything, but it is entirely unpersuasive.

[Osolomia]

10. Nonsense. You're attacking the messenger

instead of addressing the information in the thousands of links provided, with the blessing of the site's admittedly biased Admin no doubt.

I don't write the news, I just post the articles here so that DUers can inform themselves. There's no excuse for ignorant bigotry on a forum such as this one protends to be.

Read the software licensing agreements that you agreed to for all the programs on your computer that you are using to read this page. You'll find that US embargo law forbids their sale in Cuba. The undeniable evidence is right under your nose if you bother to take your blinders off and look.

[Osolomia]

12. Mexico bucks U.S. pressure to drop Cuba trade

May 29, 1996
From Bureau Chief Lucia Newman

MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- Mexico is one of the world's top three investors in Cuba, with interest in everything from Cuban tourist resorts to telephones.

So it isn't surprising that Mexico is incensed by word that Washington is about to give Mexican companies an ultimatum: Get out of Cuba in 45 days, or face U.S. sanctions. Preliminary warning letters were expected to go out to a handful of Mexican, Canadian and Italian companies Wednesday.

The action is being taken as the first formal implementation of the recently passed Helms-Burton Law, which seeks to put economic pressure on Cuba by imposing sanctions against overseas companies deemed to be using or profiting from property confiscated by the Cuban government after the 1959 revolution.

"It is obviously a result which pits the United States against the whole world. It is also legally unacceptable from the point of view of international law," said Jose Angel Gurria, Mexico's foreign minister.

Mexican cement giant Cemex and the Domos Group, which has invested over a billion dollars to redo Cuba's decrepit telephone system, are reportedly among the companies singled out to be the first victims of the Helms-Burton Law.

Mexican business leaders vow to resist the law, designed to force companies to choose between doing business with Cuba or the United States, Mexico's largest trading partner.

More...
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9605/29/mexico.cuba.sanctions/

And so it goes to this day, common knowledge in the Rest of the World for over 7 years now as the CNN article goes to show.

[Mika]

14. Wow! robcon doesn't know how Helm-Burton law works

The governments of Canada and Europe do not manufacture technology, corporations do. That's who the US's Helms-Burton law is aimed at - businesses that deal with Cuba, not sovereign governments that have formal relations with the government of Cuba.

This detail of US law has been explained to robcon on several different threads in the past, but yet he/she insists on repeating his/her uninformed opinion. One can easily google "Helms-Burton law" and read all about it, as, obviously, robcon hasn't.


-


On the Cuban "independent" libraries.. they aren't. They are fronts for US anti Cuba ops on the island.

From the American Librarians Association..

The Last Word on Cuban 'Independent Libraries'
http://www.lisnews.com/article.php3?sid=20010314225701

<snip>

2. What Are the "Independent Libraries"?

The "independent libraries" are private book collections in peoples'
homes. Mr. Kent and the right-wing Cuban-American propaganda outlets,
call them "independent libraries" and even "public libraries." These
"independent libraries" are one of a number of "projects" initiated
and supported by a virtual entity calling itself "Cubanet"
(www.cubanet.org) and an expatriate anti-Castro political entity
calling itself the Directorio Revolucionario Democratico Cubano. The
Cubanet website describes what the "independent libraries" are, how
they got started and who funds and solicits for them. The index page
says that the organization exists to "assist independent
sector develop a civil society..." This is the wording used in
both the Torricelli and the Helms Burton Acts, both of which require
that the US government finance efforts to subvert the Cuban society in
the name of strengthening "civil society." You will see on the "Who We
Are" page that Cubanet, located in Hialeah, Florida, is financially
supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and "private" "anonymous"
donors. The "exterior" representative of the "independent libraries"
is the Directorio Revoucionario Democratico Cubano, also located in
Hialeah.(5)

3. Who are the Independent Librarians?

You will read on the pages of Cubanet about the individual
"libraries" and their personnel. Not one of the people listed is
actually a librarian. Not one has ever been a librarian. Most,
however, are leaders or officers of various dissident political
parties, such as the Partido Cubano de Renovacion Ortodoxa and the
Partido Solidaridad Democratica. This is documented on Cubanet,
although Mr. Kent never mentions these party affiliations in his FCL
press releases. We know absolutely nothing about the principles,
programs or activities of these parties, or why they have been
allegedly targeted. We don't know whether their activities are lawful
or unlawful under Cuban law. Kent maintains that their activities are
solely related to their books - but in reality we have no idea whether
this is true and in fact, one of these "librarians" told one of our
ALA colleagues that this was not true! By using the terms
"beleaguered," "librarians" and the buzzwords "freedom of expression"
and "colleagues" Mr. Kent hopes to get the a priori support of
librarians who might not look beneath this veneer. After all, isn't
this the reason that the subcommittee will be considering their case
in the first place? But I wonder if ALA is willing to establish the
precedent that all politicians with private book collections who
decide to call themselves "librarians," are therefore our
"colleagues"?

4. Who funds Cubanet, the Directorio, and the "independent libraries"
- and why is this important?

A recent book entitled Psy War Against Cuba by Jon Elliston (Ocean
Press, 1999), reveals, using declassified US government documents, the
history of a small piece of the 40-year-old propaganda war waged by
our country against the government of Cuba. The US has spent hundreds
of millions of taxpayers' dollars over these years to subvert and
overthrow the current Cuban government - US activities have included
complete economic embargo, assassinations and assassination attempts,
sabotage, bombings, invasions, and "psyops." When even the fall of
the Soviet Union and the devastation of the Cuban economy in the early
1990's did not produce the desired effect, the US embarked on
additional, subtler, campaigns to overthrow the Cuban government from
within. One element of this approach is the funneling of monetary
support to dissident groups wherever they can be found, or created.
This includes bringing cash into the country through couriers such as
Mr. Kent, and increasing support to expatriate groups operating inside
the US, such as the Directorio, Cubanet and especially, the Cuban
American National Foundation (CANF) The website Afrocubaweb
(www.afrocubaweb.org) has gathered information from the Miami Herald
and other sources to document the recipients of this US funding.
USAID, a US government Agency, supported the Directorio Revolucionario
Democratico Cubano to the amount of $554,835 during 1999. This is
the group that supports the "independent librarians" in Cuba and is
listed as their "foreign representative." The money that they send to
Cuba, as well as the "small amounts" of cash that Mr. Kent carried
illegally to Cuba violates Cuban law, which does not allow foreign
funding of their political process. Neither does the United States
allow foreign funding of its own political process - the furor around
alleged Chinese "contributions" to the Democratic Party is a case in
point. The "independent libraries" may be independent of their own
government, but they are not independent of the US government. The US
government is not the only anti-Castro entity that has adjusted its
policy to changing times-- the most right-wing forces in the Cuban
expatriate community have also stepped up their support of dissident
elements inside Cuba over the last few years. The Miami Herald
reported in September 2000 that "the leading institution of this
city's exile community plans to quadruple the amount of money it sends
to dissident leaders on the island..." This leading institution is the
Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), and the article reports
that part of the group's $10,000,000 budget will begin "flowing to the
island through sympathetic dissidents by the end of the year." More
specifically, CANF will, among other declared activities, "increase
funds to buy books for its independent libraries."(6)

[Mika]

15. Crickets

What? No reasoned response - with links?
Maybe robcon will move along with another red herring. :shrug:

[Osolomia]

16. DU's site approved pointless flamers never post links to back up claims

But I've yet to see a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, or anyone for that matter, provide evidence that justifies maintaining the hostile and unethical trade embargo and travel ban either!

This is the 3rd US presidential campaign since the Helms-Burton Act was passed, there's no excuse for the Dems pandering to the extremist right wing minority to this day. In the face of such an overwhelming majority with more bucks than the mafia, looks more like blackmail imho.

Btw, read something the other day, perhaps satirical, speculating on the OAS admitting Cuba and Castro going to Washington in October for the meeting.

What if Bush panders to the majority in time for the election?

[minkyboodle]

17. Wow Robcon is in full right-wing attack mode

and doesn't respond to the numerous links that Mika and comp. provide.. interesting.
Scott

[joshcryer]

11. Maybe they realize that the underground movement...

...was profitable to the state.

[Osolomia]

13. Wow! Look at all the "Castro apologists" in the USA!!!

Editorials on U.S.-Cuba Policy 2001-2003
http://www.lawg.org/countries/Cuba/editorials.htm

Senate Vote to End Travel Ban October 23, 2003
http://www.lawg.org/countries/Cuba/senate-votes.htm

House Vote to End Travel Ban September 10, 2003
http://www.lawg.org/countries/Cuba/vote-counts-flake.htm

Poll of Cuban-Americans v. non-Cuban-Americans (in Dade County) on various policies:
http://www.fiu.edu/orgs/ipor/cuba2000/3samples.htm

A recent Miami Herald poll on Cuba:
http://www.miami.com/multimedia/miami/news/archive/cubanpoll.pdf

Various polls concerning ending the embargo and establishing diplomatic ties: http://www.pollingreport.com/cuba.htm

And that doesn't include the past year, or the steady stream in the past week alone!