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CUBAN LIBRARIES
SOLIDARITY GROUP
PRESS RELEASE
Statement on charges
of restricted Internet access in Cuba
1/20/2004
Today the Local Government
International Bureau put out a press release claiming that Cuba intends
to restrict internet use. This statement is false, as can be seen by the
interview below with Cuba's Minister of Information Technology. Information
for Social Change (ISC) calls on the LGIB to retract its allegations about
internet access in Cuba. ISC also calls on the LGIB to oppose the two
biggest barriers to freedom of information in Cuba :
1. the illegal US
blockade of Cuba which has been in place over 40 years (despite repeated
US resolutions calling for it to end) and which affects every aspect of
Cuba's daily life.
2. the EU Common Position on Cuba which severely restricts cultural exchanges
between Cuba and EU countries.
-John Pateman, Information
for Social Change
Official Cuban
statement regarding Internet access
Minister of Information
Technology of Cuba: digitization and Internet access will continue to
increase
Heriberto
Rosabal, 2004-01-19
Ignacio González
Planas, Minister of Information Technology and Communications of Cuba
Access to data transmission,
to the Internet and e-mail services is a whole chapter, as it relates
to the increasing use of PCs. What is happening there? What is the policy
about it?
“In our summary meeting of the results of 2003 and the discussion
of the main tasks for 2004, we explained that the country now has an estimated
270 000 PCs, 65% of which are networked; that there are 1 100 .cu domains;
more than 750 Internet sites and more than 480 000 e-mail accounts. All
of our media, both national and local, can be found on the Internet. Several
radio stations broadcast on the Internet in real time and Cubavisión
Internacional [a TV channel] is also available on the Net.”
“These figures reached despite our constraints in communication
infrastructure reveal an important increase, but they are still,
of course, insufficient. The 6.37 telephone sets per every 100 inhabitants,
as well as the old and deteriorated networks, make it difficult to expand
the totally efficient access to the Internet.”
“The progress made has been possible due to the enforcement of a
policy in line with our economic situation and our development plans.
We have privileged the use of the Net in the social field, in public health,
education, science and technology, the national and local TV networks,
culture, the banking system, the most important branches of the economy
and, much more recently, in the services for the population.”
“This policy has facilitated an intense use of the technical connection
possibilities, as well as expansive and growing access, which should continue
to increase systematically. Hundreds of thousands of people in Cuba access
the Internet, and there will be increasingly more to do so on a daily
basis. Only through INFOMED, the Internet service of public health, nearly
30 000 professionals, doctors and paramedics gain access to the Net. In
higher education, almost all professors and the vast majority of students
use the Internet, with restrictions only relating to the available computer
time and the speed allowed by our networks.
“Workers in R&D centers also have guaranteed Internet access,
constant scientific-technical upgrades and prompt exchanges with their
counterparts in other countries. A large portion of reporters use the
Internet on a day-to-day basis on the job.”
“In the 300 Computer Youth Clubs, found in all of the country’s
municipalities, thousands of young people gain access to the network through
TINORED. Municipal culture centers allow the systematic access by writers,
artists and other culture workers and through the post-office net
halls (a service that is just beginning), the population in general will
gain access directly and progressively.”
“Besides all this, conditions are being put in place to multiply
the use of IT in the country. First of all, through the endeavor of teaching
computer skills since the pre-school age: all of the country’s schools
have PCs that are also used in the teaching-learning process, including
2 368 schools with solar panels. Of those, 93 have only one student enrolled.
In higher education, there is a PC per every 12 students, who use this
technology on a large scale. The recently established Computer Science
University (UCI) already has 4 000 students and will begin to graduate
2 000 professionals per annum as of 2006-2007. This adds to the IT schools
found in all of the universities of the country. A total of 30 000 students
are engaged in programming studies and other intermediate IT specialties.”
“A major effort is being made to enhance the Cuban software industry,
emphasizing health, education, the banking system, telecommunications,
tourism, culture, etc. In the near future, the use of Cuban software in
telemedicine and TV-oriented education will be fairly common.”
“Solutions are being examined and implemented to alleviate and add
more efficacy to citizen-oriented services, as well as to develop electronic
mail.”
“This is just to give you an example by way of reply to your question,
and taking into account, by the way, that there are some press releases
around saying that we are restricting the use of the Internet.”
- Such releases make reference to a resolution of the Ministry of Information
Technology and Communication that allegedly restricts the access by Cubans
to the Internet. Is it so?
“Nothing farther from our current reality. In a world where Internet
access is just for the elite, where billions of people have never seen
a telephone set and have no hopes of ever accessing the Net because
a large portion of them cannot read or write the possible path to
be followed by underdeveloped countries, and the most democratic and massive,
is the one we are traveling down. There’s no question whatsoever
in my mind.”
“The speculations of those press releases and international media
reports these days manipulate a basic measure of protection for Internet
networks and users.”
“The world is full of hackers, viruses, Trojans, illegalities in
the use of networks, pornography on the Internet. Everywhere, every day,
measures are taken to prevent this disarray; essential measures for the
networks to work well. Criticisms always come up when we take some basic
legality control measures, and there are people who become concerned about
the “freedoms” of the Cubans, who can be regarded, much to their
chagrin, as the freest people on Earth.”
“I can ascertain that there’s no change whatsoever in the policy
set forth for Internet use, whose tenets are that those who abide by the
existing regulations will continue to gain access to the Net; that the
access by Cubans to the Internet will continue to rise as allowed by connectivity
and that we are going to crack down on all unlawful acts to defend the
Net. At the recent World Summit on Information Society, we presented a
report entitled Cuba: ICTs for all, which clearly explains our current
situation and our policy on this issue.”
“It was obvious at the Summit that our practice could prove very
useful for Third World countries, whose socio-economic situation demands
specific solutions that have nothing to do with those used and proposed
by the rich countries.”
“We’ll continue to work along those lines, convinced that the
use of the Internet and the new information and communication technologies,
if made creatively and on the basis of the specific situation of our countries,
can significantly help us develop and defend our ideas and rights, as
expressed by our Commander-in-Chief.”
- In the case of Cuba, how does the US blockade impact the access to ICTs,
since it is said around the world that such use is democratic and was
proclaimed at the Geneva Summit as equal to all?
“The blockade makes everything extraordinarily difficult. In the
document that we prepared for the Geneva Summit there is a very clear
explanation of what the blockade is. The US owns the highest technology
and produces very efficient, modern equipment. It also owns the software
industry to some extent and its transnational corporations are even
the proprietors in many other countries.”
“We, in turn, on account of the blockade, have to resort to complex
mechanisms to sometimes acquire some technologies, and sometimes we cannot
gain access to them. We have to content ourselves with solutions that
are not the ideal ones. The equipment is more expensive and on many occasions
it must be brought in from far-flung places.”
“Luckily, we have important cooperation schemes with countries whose
technological development is significant, like China (supplier of the
digital exchange centers in Guantánamo, Sancti Spíritus
and Isla de la Juventud). That facilitates the increase in the country’s
high-quality technology.”
From the Summit on Information Society, Ignacio González Planas
has a story connected with the other blockade, which around the globe
derives from the so-called “digital divide” between the haves
and the have-nots:
“At the Round Table in which I took part in representation of Cuba,
the delegate of an African country talked in the middle of the debate
about our countries’ access to ICTs: ‘What are we talking about
here, if in my country we only have 0.16 telephone sets per every 100
inhabitants? I wonder if that’s the possibility of ‘free’
and ‘democratic’ access to the Internet and, overall, to these
new technologies that many consider.”
ICTs and the blockade
The US blockade against Cuba seriously hampers our country’s access
to new ICTs:
- Since 1962, Cuba has had no access to telecommunications and computer
equipment owned by any US company or subsidiary.
- Because of the blockade, the Cuban telecommunications sector has suffered
million-dollar losses in basic and wireless telephone activities, alarm
systems, e-commerce and postal communications. In telephone activities
alone, losses amounted to US$ 21.7 million in 2002.
- If the blockade did not exist, with a stake of just 0.1% in the US e-commerce
market, that goes beyond the US$ 500 billion mark per annum (2000), Cuba
could earn more than US$ 500 million per annum.
- Due to the impossibility of purchasing on the US market, Cuban company
CITMATEL (supplier of computer equipment to the island’s scientific
centers) has on many occasions to buy these items through third countries
and pay up to 30% more as opposed to the price in the US.
- On 10 April 2003, the US Department of Commerce refused to give an export
license to USA/Cuba-INFOMED, a humanitarian NGO based in California, which
intended, as on previous occasions, to donate 423 PCs to Cuban hospitals
and polyclinics to support the diagnosis and medical information network.
“This export would be deleterious to the foreign policy interests
of the United States,” it stated.
- When the US Army developed the e-mail, Cuba had no access to that service
or to technical know-how or equipment. The access by the Cubans to US
sites on the Internet was blocked until May 1994. Therefore, Cuba could
not take part in the Internet process at an earlier stage.
- The Torricelli Act, adopted in 1992, which further tightened the blockade,
identified communications with Cuba as a way to weaken the revolutionary
regime.
- It is not up to Cuba to be connected to the Internet at the speed it
would like to or with as many independent channels or providers it can
choose. Each time Cuba tries to add a new channel to the Internet, the
US counterpart must procure the appropriate license from the US Treasury
Department. Likewise, if an American company wants to open a new channel
for Cuba or decides to upgrade the connection speed, a license must be
issued.
- Cuba’s current connection to the so-called Infobahn does not offer
the appropriate bandwidth to meet the country’s requirements. The
blockade compels Cuba to use an expensive and slow satellite-related bandwidth
and connection. The problem could be solved with the connection of a fiber-optic
cable between Cuba and the Florida Straits, but the US has not allowed
so.
The mirages of the Internet
Internet access is very far from being a benefit to the great majorities:
- 90% of the world’s population has no access to the Internet.
- Over 70% of those connected to it live in developed countries.
- In Africa, less than 1% of the population has access to the Internet.
More than half of those with connection are from South Africa. The shortage
of telephone lines is compounded by the lack of electricity. In Ghana,
only 20% of homes has electric power; in Namibia, 5%; in Senegal, 2.3%;
in Mozambique, 0.4%, according to figures of the ITU.
- In Central America, Internet access is a luxury. In Guatemala, 0.6%
of the population has access; in El Salvador, the rate is 0.7%; in Nicaragua,
0.04% and in Honduras, 0.03%.
- Even in large and populated nations of the Third World, there are very
few citizens with Internet access: in Mexico, 4.6% of the population;
in India, 1.6%; in Indonesia, 1.8%.
- In Russia, a former power, only 4.2% of citizens have access to the
Internet.
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