Luis Alberto Rivera, APLO
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, May - The telecommunications company of Cuba (ETECSA)
offers multiple options to benefit its users. Call waiting, call transferring,
conference calls, electronic lock, automatic alarm clock, direct line, and many
other features are evidence of the advantages of having a sophisticated
technological system.
However, contrary to ETECSA's slogan that represents the best attention to
the customer, the reality is that very often phone calls are cut short by
watchful operators and there are many of what they call "restricted
numbers".
When someone complains to ETECSA of these problems, they justify with a
regular "problems with the line." It's a coincidence that the
so-called "problems with the line" always happen when the conversation
topic is something not very gratifying to the communist government.
"When they talk about the lack of medications or food, of some
political abuse or other topics related to injustice or state deficiencies,
that's the precise moment when the call is cut off", tells a resident of
Santiago in Cuba who didn't reveal his name because of the fear of never being
able to talk to their family members in the United States again.
This details puts in evidence that the operators of the international
communication system listen to what people are saying on all sides of the
telephone line.
Privacy's rights in Cuba are subordinate to the interests of the state. Even
the Constitution says that privacy can be violated when it means protecting the
security of the state, and this could mean any topic that is not in accordance
with what the Communist Party says or tell the people to do.
One example is the case of one Santiago resident, Marcia Perez Castillo, who
founded an independent library in her home for all who would wish to read the
texts that she exposes on some few bookshelves.
The officials at ETECSA have threatened Mrs. Perez Castillo with cutting her
telephone service, and do not permit her to use the optional benefits of the
central digital telephone system.
Why? Just because Mrs. Perez Castillo doesn't agree with the politics of the
Cuban government and has expressed it publicly and via telephone.
A popular saying states "there's always an eye watching you". It
seems that at ETECSA there's always an ear attentive to what people are talking
about.
Translated by April Solís
Versión original
en español
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