HAVANA -- The Cuban government is not "currently" planning to open
Internet service to private individuals, as it did in 2008 with mobile
telephony, although it remains a possibility that "is not being
discarded," the official press said Friday.
In a statement to Juventud Rebelde, the deputy minister of
communications, Boris Moreno, said that the possibility of opening
individual access to the Internet "is not being discarded, although it's
something about which no measures have currently been adopted."
Cuba would "first have to have guarantees from the technical and
economic points of view that it is possible to support that service, as
we did with mobile telephony," he said.
At the end of March 2008, the communist Government authorized Cubans to
activate cell phone lines, until then allowed only to foreigners,
companies and state institutions.
In the case of the Internet, access is restricted to individuals,
according to the government, because of the U.S. economic embargo
measures against the island that limit the conditions and quality of the
connection.
"From a political point of view there is no limitation, except that, as
occurs in every country around the world, we're not going to allow
access to places that foment terrorism and encourage subversion of the
established order, the order created by the Cuban people themselves,"
the deputy minister said.
The official policy has been to "favor collective access" in such places
as universities, scientific institutions and cultural centers, plus the
development of a domestic network.
"We're convinced that the Internet is indispensable for the country's
development," Moreno said.
About the project for fiber-optic cable that will connect Cuba with
Venezuela into order to facilitate the island's access to the Web and
which should be in operation starting in 2010, the deputy minister said
that it won't be a "magic solution."
"International fiber-optic cable will improve connectivity and make it
more dependable and more secure, and at the same time will give us a
greater volume of traffic. But it won't necessarily make it any cheaper
than what our connection with international networks costs the country,"
he said.
According to official data, on the island there are currently more than
1.4 million users of digital networks, including those who use e-mail,
those who use the Cuba Network and those with complete access to the
Internet.
The husband of prominent Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said in December
that the government warned the two of them not to hold a meeting with
other Internet users.
"They called each one of us individually to ... warn us not to hold a
meeting that we had planned with some Cuban bloggers," Reinaldo Escobar
told Efe.
He said that besides him and Sanchez, winner of Spain's Ortega y Gasset
online journalism award for her Generacion Y blog, authorities also
warned at least one other person, the webmaster of the site Octavo Cerco.
Escobar said the Dec. 5-6 gathering, which did take place after all "was
supposed to be a theoretical workshop ... without any political content."
"This action doesn't demonstrate any type of intention of opening up on
behalf of the Cuban government. This action contradicts that thing that
some people want to see, that the current government of Raul Castro
intends to improve people's rights," Escobar said.
Sanchez was awarded the Ortega y Gasset prize in April for an
independent blog with stinging commentary about daily life in Cuba, but
she was not allowed to travel to Spain to accept the honor because Cuban
authorities did not issue her an exit visa.
Since succeeding ailing older brother Fidel a year ago, Cuban President
Raul Castro has authorized the sale of previously restricted goods,
ordered state enterprises to boost pay for more productive workers and
offered additional land to peasant farmers and cooperatives.
But while anxious to revitalize Cuba's economy and raise living
standards, Raul has given no indication he plans to loosen the Communist
Party's grip on power. EFE
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