Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D.
NewsMax.com. Monday, March 19, 2001
"Only oppression should fear the full exercise of
freedom." - José Martí (1853-1895), Cuban apostle of liberty
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro does not want what happened in the Soviet Union
and its former satellites in the years 1989-1991 to take place in Stalinist Cuba
in the 21st century. Following the lead of what happened in the U.S.S.R., the
enslaved people of the Eastern bloc-Warsaw Pact nations threw off the yoke of
tyranny and their communist governments toppled one after the other.
The onslaught of freedom could not be stopped. The free, unimpeded flow of
information was behind this global coup. The aging dictator fears the same might
happen in the Caribbean island, that the long-suffering Cuban people learn there
is life after communism, and that there is a world out there where people are
truly free.
The commander in chief watched helplessly and painfully the tumbling of the
Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Empire in 1991. The
communist world collapsed because of the massive flow of information that came
with glasnost and the political "reforms" that followed with
perestroika. Communism is not dead, but it suffered a catastrophic setback at
the hands of freedom. If socialism continues to gain ground, particularly in our
own nation, it is only because it thrives in deceit and ignorance supported by
the obfuscations emanating from the ivory towers of academia. The forces of
darkness fear the rays of light and unfiltered information shining in the nooks
and crevices of tyranny.
They know the underground trickle of information exchanged in the Russian
samizdat of the 1980s became an uncontrollable current, a sweeping tide of
information that in time could not be stopped. Mounts of information heralded by
the electronic media, faxes, etc., brought the Russian bear to its knees.
According to Marcelo Fernández-Zayas, who files an Intelligence
Report from Washington (Jan.11, 2001), the U.S. provides Internet services to
Cuba. "In an apparent violation of the Helms-Burton Act, there is a
commercial agreement between the Cuban government and the American corporation,
Global One of Reston, Virginia." These secret negotiations, according to
the report, took place at the time of the Elián González saga, "an
agreement that appears to bring Cuba into the Internet era."
Be that as it may, Castro understands the danger that freedom of the press,
particularly the Internet, poses to his entrenched dictatorship and recognizes
the importance of controlling the media and the flow of information. He knows
the value of imposing censorship for the maintenance of power. The Maximum
Leader learned this well in the 1950s and his years in the Sierra Maestra when
he manipulated adroitly both the American and Cuban press. In fact, Castro and
his propagandists used a free press under the Batista regime as well as Cuba's
six television networks, 58 daily newspapers, and over 250 radio stations, which
were all privately owned, for his ascendancy to power. After he assumed the
reigns of government in 1959, all these media outlets were nationalized. Most
were shut down and the few that remained became State-owned, Castro's voice.
Thus, today, the Maximum Leader looks with considerable trepidation at the
prospect of badly needing Internet technology, digital telephones, computers,
and wireless media to attract the foreign investment that is required to keep
his dictatorship afloat. Expediency has forced the Cuban government to contract
with foreign "entrepreneurs" to design Web pages to market Castro's
island fiefdom for foreign tourism. Even Cuban health care, that great mythical
achievement of the Revolution, is being advertised and vaunted to attract
foreign patients who can pay for medical care with cash. (Captive Cubans need
not apply, for they are treated with socialized medicine, which recently has
been pushing herbs and other natural, cheaper concoctions.) Web pages, of
course, are used for disseminating political propaganda and hyping the gains of
the Revolution.
Internet technology may seem like a double-edged sword, but it is actually
more like the sword of Damocles hanging dangerously over the head of the
communist leadership. And yet, there is still the question that even if the
Internet does not become a serious threat to the regime, will it ultimately reap
the expected benefits for the ruling Cuban nomenklatura? As reported in the
Washington Post (December 26, 2000), "whether a liberalization of
government Internet policy will accompany the new investment remains to be seen."
But Castro is taking no chances. While the communist government with its
fledgling tourism industry needs Internet access, prohibitions against private,
home Internet use and access remain firmly in place. The Cuban government will
carefully balance its needs with its concerns by closely monitoring Internet
connections on the island to ensure that the State maintains a monopoly on the
source and flow of information. While promoting Internet use for its own
purposes, the government will try to keep the lid on information available to
the populace, so that freedom does not subvert the hapless, enslaved populace
a daunting task.
As with Cuban communist policy, Internet use is already restricted to the
communist elite (i.e., government propagandists, like the writers unions, and
the up and coming, new generation of communist, Cuban princelings), and those
with access to dollars. A single hour of authorized Internet use, though, may
cost a Cuban two weeks' wages (i.e., $5.00 per hour after waiting in line for
his turn). Even this limited access to State-owned computers is filtered so that
only selected Web sites can be accessed.
But, can the dictator continue to keep the genie in the bottle? In the days
preceding Christmas 2000, Castro severed telephone communications between the
United States and the island. And only a few days before that dissidents
including members of the November 30th democratic movement, who had tried to
participate in religious services, and members of the Cuban Democratic
Revolutionary Directorate, who advocated an end to the censorship on books in
the island were rounded up and incarcerated.
Despite the restrictions on Internet use, Cuban informaticos and clandestine
web surfers are using government authorized passwords (obtained through their
tourism related jobs) to log onto the Internet from home and savor the new,
forbidden fruit of knowledge available in cyberspace. Sooner or later, they too
will be crushed by the island's DGI, the Cuban version of George Orwell's
Thought Police.
Although, we have been fooled before, we remain hopeful that the final days
of Cuban tyranny are near and fast approaching. As the great Roman Stoic
philosopher, Seneca, once exclaimed, "Injustice does not last forever,"
and neither will Fidel Castro.
This column originally appeared in La Nueva Cuba. Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D.,
is editor in chief of Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians
and Surgeons (AAPS), author of "Vandals at the Gates of Medicine"
(1995) and "Medical Warrior: Fighting Corporate Socialized Medicine"
(1997), and a frequent contributor to NewsMax.com. He is working on a book about
Cuba. Web sites: http://www.haciendapub.com
and http://www.aapsonline.org
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