WIRED NEWS
Cuba Not So Libre With the Net
by Julia Scheeres
2:00 a.m. Feb. 23, 2001 PST


Internet and e-mail access in Cuba is as jealously guarded as Fidel Castro's
chokehold on power. But that hasn't stopped enterprising Cubans from finding
ways to flout government restrictions.

The Cuban government controls the country's only Internet gateway and four
national ISPs. Out of 11 million Cubans, only about 40,000 academics and
government workers are permitted to have Internet and e-mail accounts,
according to government spokesman Luis Fernandez.

At best, Cuba's attitude toward the Internet could be described as
patriarchal. Father Fidel knows best. At worst, it's a pothole in the
information superhighway that will slow, but not impede, the Net's
inexorable reach.

The official reason for the island's low connectivity is economic. The U.S.
trade embargo forces Cuba to use an expensive, sluggish satellite connection
and bandwidth must be doled out carefully, Fernandez said.

"The state subsidizes the Internet, so researchers have priority," Fernandez
said.

The real reason lies somewhere between economics and politics.

All Internet accounts must be registered through the National Center for
Automated Data Exchange (CENIAI) for a whopping $260 a month. With the
average Cuban making $240 a year, the Internet is a luxury few people can
afford, even if they are lucky enough to have a phone line and computer for
a dialup connection.

But even the privileged few don't have complete access. Sites that include
pornography and anti-Castro rhetoric are blocked at the gateway. Just as the
Cuban government jams the signals of pro-democracy radio stations
broadcasting on the island, it filters out "subversive" Web pages, Fernandez
said.

"We need to do the same with the Internet because we can't have things that
undermine Cuban society," Fernandez said. "The Internet is used only for
good purposes in Cuba."

As for e-mail, Fernandez said the government only monitors people who are
"under investigation" for anti-revolutionary activities, although he
wouldn't specify the actions that merit wiretapping.

Yet there are many ways to circumvent the rules, according to Cuba experts
and independent journalists living on the island.

"Cuban young people are really hungry for information and have a sense of
being left behind," said Juan Carlos Espinosa, professor of Cuban Studies at
St. Thomas University in Miami. "Cubans are very inventive, despite all the
ways the regime tries to control information."

Laptops donated by foreign friends are secretly plugged into phone jacks at
work; Internet passwords are traded on a burgeoning black market; blocked
Web pages are sent as text attachments; free Web-based e-mail accounts allow
free speech; used components are pieced together with hacked software to
create what locals call "Frankenstein" computers.

The tech-savvy youngsters who hop on the Net despite difficulties are called
"gurus," said Hector Maseda, an independent journalist in Cuba.

"They laugh at the restrictions imposed by the government authorities,"
Maseda said.

The gurus that have been caught with clandestine Internet connections have
had their equipment confiscated, he said. Maseda said dissident journalists
routinely have their equipment seized and risk jail time for expressing
anti-Castro views. Two reporters are currently serving jail time for
"anti-revolutionary" activities.

Paranoia runs deep in everyone with ties to Cuba; no one wants to anger the
government.

Several academics contacted for this story refused to speak on record,
fearing their research on the island would be compromised if they were
critical of the government. A Cuban programmer queried via e-mail had an
American friend call this reporter to tell her not to send more electronic
missives. The government screens e-mail, he said, and the questions about
censorship were too conspicuous.

The fear of government wiretapping is so great that some families create
code languages for their electronic correspondence, said a Cuban exile
living in New Hampshire who asked to remain anonymous.

Dollars are referred to as vitamins, and arranging for the illegal
emigration of a relative is referred to as "delivering a package of
medicine."

"Nobody says things straight," he said. "If you live here you don't want to
jeopardize anyone's situation there. They could go to jail just for
receiving an anti-revolutionary e-mail."

In a country where letters show obvious signs of being opened and re-glued
and a person will stroke his or her chin in reference to Castro rather than
say his name aloud, this isn't surprising.

Meanwhile, the Cuban government has capitalized on the Net by hosting
tourism sites to pump up the island's primary industry and publishing
Castro's perorations in six languages.

"Cuba is full of those paradoxes," said Espinosa. "They want the milk but
they don't want to deal with the cow."

************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************