Causes uncertain as Cubans' Internet access withers Politics, price and
infrastructure may be to blame
By MICHAEL MARTINEZ
Chicago Tribune
HAVANA — At a government-run Internet cafe inside a Havana post office,
the 1,942 Cubans signed up to use the computers were left with a
question this summer: Why had the government abruptly cut their Internet
access, leaving them only with e-mail on a state account?
At this and three other public centers in Havana no longer on the Web,
managers and clientele could only speculate why:
Did demand exceed the woeful infrastructure?
Or was it the latest example of information control in the communist
nation, as Internet rumors abound about Fidel Castro's illness and
prognosis?
Did the communications minister make good on a February pronouncement
that the Internet "can and must be controlled"?
"They don't want us to see the critical press," one man said.
"They want to keep us in darkness," said another, adding that his
e-mails can be more easily monitored.
Not even two employees at the post office knew why they lost Web surfing
in early July.
"I don't think there should be any limitations because it's not good for
cultural advancement," one manager said.
Wrong side of divide
The Internet blackout in at least four Havana cafes, including one in
the Ministry of Communication headquarters, provided a snapshot of Cuba
on the short end of the digital divide, where developing countries
struggle to put and keep institutions and people online.
Ordinary Cubans have trouble affording and securing authorization for
computers and home dial-up service (high-speed access doesn't exist in
Cuban homes). Less than 2 percent can go online.
That makes the Internet cafe, whose overall numbers throughout Cuba
couldn't be ascertained, the all-important public means to access the
Internet.
Foreign visitors can access the Web in hotels, where Internet cafe
prices of $12 an hour and strict guest policies keep out average Cubans.
One report estimated that only 220,000 of the country's roughly 11
million people are online.
If Cubans have a computer at work, Web access is often scant — limited
to pages related to their job — except for senior officials, government
journalists and certain other professionals.
Communications Ministry officials declined to comment.
'Technical problem'
One government aide who didn't have firsthand knowledge of the blackout
said a temporary "technical problem" could be the cause.
While not speaking about the cafes' loss of Web browsing, a second
government official who asked not to be named said many problems stem
from poor infrastructure created by a U.S. policy preventing Cuba from
accessing undersea high-speed cables as close as 12 miles from Havana,
in addition to an American trade embargo on computer software and hardware.
Cuba must rely on an expensive but relatively slow satellite connection
to the Internet, and those limits frustrate officials who highlight
computer training as early as the first grade.
"Our infrastructure is the worst," the official said.
Many of those shortcomings will be remedied after Cuba and Venezuela
complete an underwater 965-mile fiber-optic cable in 2009, the official
said.
The cable will modernize and expand the island's digital capacity.
Critics, meanwhile, aren't convinced the U.S. is entirely to blame.
Jean Francois Julliard, head of research for Reporters Without Borders,
which last October criticized Cuba's "system of control and
surveillance" of the Internet, said U.S. policies are wrongheaded.
But as for Cuba, which is noted for subsidizing and providing a high
level of free education and medical care, he asks, "Why couldn't they
provide a cheaper access to the Internet?"
Since last year, Reporters Without Borders, a French non-profit group,
has been raising concerns about Cuba.
"With less than 2 percent of the population online, Cuba is one of the
world's most backward countries as regards Internet usage," the report
said, ranking it as the worst in Latin America.
The U.S. State Department contends that Cuba blocks Web sites deemed
politically objectionable.
But Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico
who has studied Cuba's Internet for several years, said limited capacity
forces the government to make tough decisions.
"At present, it's a zero-sum game," Valdes said.
"I would have to say that those who make the decisions in Cuba, they
would say, 'How do (the blocked Web sites) contribute to development? Do
we give (Internet usage) to dissidents or to a hospital?' "
Meanwhile, Cubans still find illicit ways to get online.
For example, a government auditor spent several hours one recent
afternoon using a friend's Internet account at one of the
government-controlled media outlets, which are at the most open levels
of Web access.
The accountant's own office computer had very little Internet access,
confined to matters related to his work.
"I can access Google, Yahoo and probably pornography if (I) wanted, but
I'm sure that's monitored," said the auditor, who asked that his name
not be published because his Internet use was unauthorized.
"The biggest problem for me and my friends is we can't download anything
more than a few (megabytes). All you can do is send one e-mail one
photo, one e-mail one photo," he said.
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