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FROM
CUBA
Internet for all?
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.
Versión
original en español
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