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FROM
CUBA
Limitations on Internet access for Cubans
to become more stringent
HAVANA, January 14 (www.cubanet.org) -
Cubans not authorized by the government
to use the Internet who log on through their
phones now run the risk of losing their
phone service, under new measures taken
by the government.
Cubans first learned the news from abroad,
before the government-controlled media carried
anything about it. The general population
has never had access to the web, but the
few "illegal users" are worried.
For dozens of years, new telephone service
has only been available for government or
Communist party officials, or for others
whose duties justified having it. Foreigners
paying in hard currency have also always
been able to get a service installation.
The same rules apply to Internet service.
The Cuban telephone company ETECSA recently
started broadening the domestic telephone
net. Customers whose work requires a telephone
are given priority for new service, such
as public health, education and military
personnel, but the final determination is
made by a committee that evaluates the merits
of the prospective customer, and if he or
she "doesn't participate in government-sponsored
political activities, there is no phone."
Generally, this is the same committee that
decides who will or will not be granted
the right to buy one of the Panda-brand
TVs. These are 20-inch color sets imported
from China and assembled in Cuba that sell
for 4,000 pesos, or about 16 months' wages
at the average salary. The committees have
been called by people the "discord
committees" as they promote strife
among neighbors competing for the right
to buy the TVs.
Despite that access to the Internet has
been very limited, some are worried about
the new measures. A housewife laments that
her daughter will no longer be able to get
her horoscope from the CubaSí portal.
Another, not quite sure what the Internet
is, was alarmed this morning because her
son, who worked at a foreign company, had
been able to buy a computer and had connected
it to the Internet.
The son eventually married a Mexican and
left the country, but the woman is afraid
that "they will find out that Fermincito
had Internet and they will want to take
out my phone that I've had since 1954."
Such is life in Cuba, the only thing that
isn't rationed is fear.
For the first time in the queue to pay
for telephone service, there was no talk
about food rationing. Instead everyone talked
about the rationing of communications and
information.
Versión
original en español
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