HAVANA, August 2 (Jesús Zúñiga) – U. S. telephone companies offering service to Cuba paid more than 40 million dollars during the last semester of 1999 to the Cuban telephone company, ETECSA, according to the company's report to the government.
The report said that between June 30 and December 31, 1999, the U. S. companies paid 42,723,407 dollars. This represents the Cuban share of half the proceeds of all the calls made between the U. S. and Cuba in that period. The average cost for the calls is 1.20 dollars per minute.
The agreements between the U. S. and Cuban telephone companies are authorized by the Cuban Democracy Act, of October, 1992, which facilitated direct calls between Cuba and the U. S., authorized payment to Cuba for its
share of the calls, and gave impetus to the modernization of the island's communications system.
"This is the negative part of the agreement under the Cuban Democracy Act," said one Cuban telephone worker. "Thanks to the United States, there are now more people to people contacts, but at the same time, Fidel Castro is receiving more money which will not benefit the workers of
ETECSA."
But an expert in New York said: "At least under this formula, Castro is receiving less money than he used to get when the calls were made through independent companies in Canada." The expert cited a U. S. government report to the effect that between 1992 and 1996 the Havana regime
received just under 77 million dollars for telephone calls.
Versión original en español
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