Cubans Relive Obama Visit With 'Offline Internet'

Cubans Relive Obama Visit With 'Offline Internet'
Reuters
April 18, 2016 8:55 PM

HAVANA—
A curated collection of news and features about U.S. President Barack
Obama's historic visit to Cuba last month has become a hit on El
Paquete, the island's illegal but tolerated digital media magazine
better known for music, films, and soap operas.

Often called Cuba's offline Internet and featuring downloaded Internet
pages and commercials along with pirated entertainment, El Paquete is a
hugely successful dose of content distributed on hard-drives in
neighborhoods across the island, where only about a third of people have
access to the Web.

Cuban state media transmitted live much of the March 20-22 visit by the
first U.S. president to set foot in Cuba in 88 years, including his
keynote speech to the country.

But many people missed the broadcasts because the events took place
during work hours.

With Internet access expensive and restricted, for many Cubans their
best chance of hearing Obama's speech was through El Paquete, or The
Package, which passes from hand to hand and has become a source of
income for the thousands of people who distribute it.

"For the time being, El Paquete replaces the Internet for those who
don't have it," said Elio Hector Lopez, who helped create the system
eight years ago to earn a bit of extra money and watched it expand into
a national phenomenon.

"It has become a responsibility, if tomorrow El Paquete disappears I
don't know what people would do, it's like water, or a pill for the
Cuban body."

His invention is perhaps the most striking example of the declining
information monopoly that was for decades held by the Communist Party,
which holds its first congress in five years this weekend at a time of
growing decentralization in Cuba's economy and society.

Cuba's formal media is state controlled and people who watch U.S.
television via clandestine satellite dishes face fines and confiscated
kit if caught. But authorities have mostly turned a blind eye to El
Paquete, which normally steers well clear of politics, and avoids
violence and pornography.

Lopez said he didn't think twice about covering Obama's visit in a
special edition that included footage taken from U.S. television, and a
short documentary about Obama's life.

"This was such a historic event, it had to be in El Paquete," he said,
adding that his work was not in coordination with the authorities, but
that he was not anti-government.

Although planned reforms to make state media more dynamic and critical
have largely failed to materialize, Internet access is finally on the
rise as the government opens up outdoor Wi-Fi hot spots and prepares to
connect more people from home.

"El Paquete delivers information, it can't replace the Internet which
has much more information, but since Cuba is blocked from that, it is a
way for us to be in the world," said Marisel, 26, a singer.

Some hole-in-the-wall stores selling pirate movies in Havana have also
come up with their own product, a DVD production called Obama in Cuba.

"You can imagine how popular this is. A hit," said one vendor of the
disc that includes Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro's awkward press
conference along with sketches Obama recorded with Cuban comedian Panfilo.

Source: Cubans Relive Obama Visit With 'Offline Internet' -
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