Written by Ramona Wadi, journalist and independent researcher, the report deals with the latest events in Cuba, Washington’s involvement and the aggression faced by the Antillean nation.

The analyst pointed out that the assumption that military intervention would solve the situation in Cuba only illustrates how the interests of anti-Cuban groups in Miami are aligned with those of the United States.

The assessment points out that while protests broke out on the island due to shortages of basic necessities, the decades-long illegal blockade on Cuba ceased to be part of the narrative of the media.

Meanwhile – he added – due to the blockade and Covid19, the island’s economy contracted further; however, the US government also continued its funding of anti-government groups, only their intentions are not democratic, despite what the mainstream propaganda spreads.

Wadi unmasks the compass of the U.S. rulers in their policy against the Cuban people, which was aimed, among other objectives, at accentuating economic deprivation, provoking hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government, he said.

President Biden was not particularly forthcoming on Cuba so far and built his policy on the foundation of the Trump administration and plays the humanitarian card to foment political unrest.

If the U.S. did not relent in its repressive tactics, there is nothing to suggest that the people would trade one rule of law for another that sought its downfall, to rebuild Cuba as the U.S. playground reminiscent of the days before the Cuban revolution, Wadi stresses in his approach.

For his part, Iñaki Etaio, a Spanish expert and analyst estimated that the U.S. blockade strained the living conditions of the population, stoked unrest and discontent among sectors of the society on the island.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

The Politico newspaper noted that Biden said he considers ‘many possibilities to help Cuban citizens, while trying to find out what actions the Cuban Government would not take advantage of’.

Among the actions in process, the president noted that he is weighing sending vaccines to Cuba to ‘help’ fight the increase in cases of Covid-19, and ignored the effects of the blockade on Cuba’s efforts to advance with ‘Abdala’ and four vaccine candidates.

He pointed out that he would not send remittances to the country at this time because it is ‘very likely that the regime will confiscate them, or large parts of them’, something that contrasts with his electoral promises.

The digital newspaper also referred to statements, according to which the White House is studying whether the United States has the ‘technological capacity’ to restore Internet access in Cuba, which in light of international law would be interference in the domestic affairs of another country.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel said recently that Cuba has the sovereign right to defend itself from media attacks promoted and financed from the United States.

Biden made the remarks after Florida Governor Ron Desantis sent him a letter, urging the federal government to take actions to restore Internet from the United States.

On Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused Washington of inciting riots through a Twitter campaign with the #SOSCuba hashtag.

In 2010, the United States launched a social media network in Cuba that used text messages, known as ZunZuneo, with the aim of introducing political content to form ‘smart mobs’ that would demonstrate against the government, the site antiwar.com noted. ZunZuneo was funded by the US Agency for International Development.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

MSc. Marta Francis, director of CITMATEL´s Organizational Development, said the company is aimed at creating and providing services and useful products to institutions and individuals, while generating financial resources for Cuba´s breakthroughs.

Thanks to its results, CITMATEL has held the status of high-tech company for a few weeks. Other three centers have reached this status: the Molecular Immunology, the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, and the National BioPreparations.

According to Francis, CITMATEL is characterized by working in a full cycle, requiring continuing improvement. In other words, its work includes applied research and innovation, design of products and services, development and production, including business models and commercialization.

All this, she pointed out, is endorsed by an integrated management system for quality and environment, as well as occupational health and safety which is periodically certified.

CITMATEL was established in 2000, with the integration of leading groups within the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, as part of a business concept whose mission was to obtain results of great impact on society and economy.

Currently, Francis added, CITMATEL promotes 16 lines of innovation projects, some of which are closely linked to improving and expanding e-commerce, distance education and software proposals for administration and science.

(Taken from Negocios en Cuba)

In Biology class, I don’t remember if it was in middle or high school, we learned about conditioned reflexes based on the work of the Russian scientist and Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, Ivan Pavlov. I think his experiment is quite well known: He would start a metronome before feeding his dog, and observed that, when the dog had not been fed for a while and heard the sound, it began to salivate. Later the legend grew that Pavlov used a bell and not a metronome, but the principle is the same: the induced association between certain stimuli and a subsequent response. Based on this, behavioral psychology was applied in education, advertising and many other arenas in the United States.

In his famous interview with Ignacio Ramonet, Fidel refers to the use of this technique in anti-communist propaganda: “And being uninformed is not the same as having lost the ability to think, because your mind is dominated by reflexes: socialism is bad, socialism is bad, they take away your parental rights, they take away your house, they take away your wife.” And the ignorant, the illiterate, the poor, the exploited are repeating: Socialism is bad, socialism is bad. This is how parrots are taught to speak, bears to dance and lions to bow down respectfully.”

Noam Chomsky includes the effect of anti-communist propaganda among the five filters that determine contents in the media. Both he and Fidel were referring to the situation reigning before the advent of Internet social networks, which, although it has certainly democratized access to communication, has also strengthened pre-existing hegemonies.

In a scenario in which processes advance at great speed, the emotional tends to prevail over the rational, and so-called egomation – the promotion and predominance of the individual, along with information linked to what is pertinent or relevant to that person – is imposed over interest in dialogue, going deeper and getting to know others. Without taking into account politically motivated use of Internet social networks, networks like Facebook have consolidated a business model based on profiting from egomania and selling influence over individuals and groups. In the case of Cuba, added to this universal reality is the impact of an annual budget of half a hundred million dollars provided by the U.S. government to influence our society.

Anti-communist propaganda, historically promoted worldwide by the dominant discourse and the manipulated use of terms like “democracy,” “human rights” and “freedom,” has expanded its repertory with the construction of certain expressions about the Cuban reality which, based on an image developed in that isolated hamlet of intolerance that is Miami, are transferred to the Internet as common knowledge about the island. Situations that occurred more than four decades ago, rarely analyzed in depth among ourselves – UMAP, “the five grey years,” repudiation of those who emigrated from Mariel – are taken out of context and presented as permanent, systemic, current characteristics of Cuban socialism, while everything that capitalism around us does on a daily basis in terms of repression, censorship, violence, torture and exclusion against majorities and minorities remains unheard.

Using, with no evidence whatsoever, the words censorship or repression, or the expression “act of repudiation,” is enough to override the necessity of providing data and arguments, or analyzing the events cited, before a series of publications is immediately unleashed in which three indignant sentences written by someone on a Facebook profile turn the world upside down. And when arguments and data refuting hastily drawn conclusions appear, two things happen. The outraged person continues to cling to their “truth” like someone who insists that the earth is flat, and the machinery that multiplies this indignation attacks those who contribute a more analytical vision. This is how freedom of expression about Cuba works on the Internet.

Over just a few months’ time, we have seen this procedure used to justify throwing pig’s blood on busts of José Martí, various desecrations of the Cuban flag, attempts to recast the significance historical dates like November 27, manipulate the meaning of “Homeland or Death” and change the name of the Plaza de la Revolución on Google maps. But if you say that a cultural war against Cuba is being waged on digital social networks, then – according to the machinery triggering reflexes conditioned by propaganda of thousands of people on Facebook – you are an extremist, a tropical Stalinist who does not tolerate “thinking differently,” because, of course, their assertions are “thinking,” not propaganda. And don’t be surprised if you sadly find individuals among the subscribers to these statements who you considered critically minded, intelligent and well-informed. The ability to think has been replaced by emotional reaction and anything can happen. Trigger words have done their job and the intellectual task of establishing the truth is no longer important, in the age of egomania what is relevant is to get “likes,” even if many of them are from trolls with fake profiles; your ego is stroked and your brain will be content not having to make an effort.

For our part, in addition to continuing to promote comprehensive, profound education to train critical citizens, who cannot be manipulated by the professionals managing this hybrid war, it is important to understand that the scenario has changed radically. The endless stream of provocations that seek to create a situation of ungovernability, taking advantage of the technological and media superiority that imperialism puts at the disposal of its handful of servants in Cuba – even attempting to unleash violence and death – can only be exposed by a response based on intelligence, political consciousness and analysis, to avoid falling into the traps they are setting, and, while continuing to firmly defend our principles, be prepared, across the entire country, to foresee the course of every possible action, to document and disseminate the true version and cause of events, and to always insist that ethics, reason, and our people, are on the side of the Revolution. Let us act this way in this “chess game of a thousand pieces,” as Fidel liked to call the ideological struggle, which now moves, in part, to the Internet, where the Cuban people will once again triumph.

(Taken from Granma)

More than 130 delegates from 21 countries gathered at the event to analyze issues such as equitable access and governance of the Internet.

In his final remarks, Cuba’s Minister of Communications, Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, emphasized that the country is committed to defending the extension of technologies for peaceful and social use.

The regional director for the Americas of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Bruno Ramos, said that events like these, held in the Caribbean, provide training and strengthen use of ICT, for countries that are increasingly connected.The importance of the open-ended Working Group, which advocates the opportunity for all states to participate, in an equitable manner, in the creation of a consensual regulatory framework and seeks to reach global agreement – within the context of the United Nations Third Commission on the criminal use of social networks and other tools.In a statement to Granma, Wilfredo González Vidal, Cuba’s first deputy minister of Communications, acknowledged that there is still a long way to go in legal matters regarding the use of ICT, especially in relation to national and global security.

(Granma)

Broadly speaking, it is the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to provide services and information to citizens, increase the effectiveness and efficiency of public administration, and boost citizen participation.

The country’s leadership is promoting and strictly following this process. President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, has offered directives on the subject on multiple occasions, one of the most recent being the 2018 report on the work of the Ministry of Communications, where he commented that to achieve the real computerization of society, that includes all aspects of life, more attention must be paid to the development of such processes.

Referring to the example of electronic government, Díaz-Canel stated: “We cannot settle for the existence of websites and platforms alone; all agencies and institutions must computerize their processes, both those related to their own work, and those directed toward the population.”

The main impact is on necessary procedures to meet the needs of the people, added the President. We cannot focus solely on state entities attached to the Ministry, he stressed, but its scope as a governing body, providing support to develop processes and solve problems in this field to any agency.

In accordance with this strategic policy, February 24, the official website of the Presidency of Cuba was launched, where contents related to the Cuban government will be published at: https://www.presidencia.gob.cu/es/

This platform will allow citizens to view the latest updates on Councils of State and Ministers meetings, as well as tweets from leading authorities.

First Deputy Minister of Communications, Wilfredo González Vidal, explained that, “We are in a moment of fulfillment of the first stage of electronic government in Cuba, that of presence.”

This process covers four stages: Presence, Interaction, Transaction and Transformation; each with easily identifiable elements that mark the goals and progress of government management using ICT, Ministry of Communications officials explained.

Today, all agencies, Central State Administration Bodies (OACE), and territorial governments (at the provincial level and the Isle of Youth Special Municipality), have an institutional web portal.

However, complex elements concerning both form and content have arisen in the implementation of this policy, and work is ongoing to ensure that by the end of the first quarter of 2019, this stage is declared complete.

In the second stage, communication and exchange mechanisms with users will be implemented, increasing the level of interaction, with the aim of facilitating procedures.

The transaction stage will guarantee online procedures and services, as well as the users’ simultaneous interaction with the government. Some of the key points of this stage are the possibility of users’ customization of portals, providing direct benefits such as personalization and notifications; sending information to registered users via email, text messages and electronic bulletins; the online submission of necessary forms for the services and procedures that each agency or entity offers, among others.

The fourth and final stage should lead to a change in the thought and actions of citizens and organizations, with government interaction through ICT raised to a higher level.

It is important to mention that achieving the first stage and then advancing through the other three represents a challenge not only in terms of infrastructure and ICT platforms, but also in terms of optimizing the internal management of state entities and the logistics to ensure compliance with that administration, specialists noted.

TERRITORIAL PROJECTS

The Computer Applications Company (DESOFT) has drawn up a work strategy that allows each provincial government to have a web portal to inform and interact with citizens, Elena Real Castro, company director in Pinar del Río, explained to Granma.

“This territory was at the forefront in this area, and it was decided to share the experience, since all provinces are part of the same government structure, in order to achieve standardization of the concept and work system,” she added.

In fact, the web portal of the Provincial Assembly of Pinar del Río, the Citizens’ Portal, was selected as a Champion Project by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and is up for one of its 2019 prizes.

The website was among the five most voted for projects in the category “The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development.”

The Granma Division of DESOFT contributed the Delegate Management System to this great project, an application put into operation several years ago in that provincial government, which is now incorporated into all provincial portals.

More than 30 enterprises subordinated to Provincial Administration Councils have a presence in each of these public portals, informing, guiding, facilitating procedures and services, and encouraging citizen participation.

Elena Real Castro emphasized that the Delegate Management System is a package of four modules that facilitate the recording and control of all possible proposals, complaints and requests made by citizens, allowing for ongoing monitoring of issues by all authorities involved.

“Both the System and the provincial portals are connected to each other, and the integration of both solutions offers the possibility of obtaining information regarding the proposals made to delegates in their accountability and consultation processes. This encourages a closer government relationship with citizens and greater transparency in their administration,” she explained.

Three key players work to ensure the success of this project, the Pinar del Río director noted. Firstly, the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) guarantees completely independent technological infrastructure, with security, availability, protection and backup of all the information that is handled.

Based on this technological infrastructure, DESOFT, using the virtual environment provided by ETECSA, provides governments with a technological platform, using a series of principles that offers the software as services, such that the use of these applications is characterized by the low-cost investments required, easy access, transparency, reliability, availability, interactivity, scalability, personalization, security and publicity, as Elena Real Castro explained.

As a third actor, and the main promoter of the project, the provincial government and its entities participate in order to incorporate citizens at the center of the transformations underway, making this environment increasingly inclusive. The provincial government is also responsible for ensuring the updating of the portal contents, and fostering a closer relationship with citizens and greater transparency in its administration.

A PROCESS FROM THE BOTTOM UP

Cuba’s Union of Computer Scientists (UIC) also plays a key role in the development of electronic government in Cuba. Given its cross-cutting nature, this organization that brings together computer and electronic specialists and those of other related specialties, has the opportunity to contribute “from the bottom up,” as its Vice President, Tatiana Delgado, noted.

This means, she added, supporting the training of local governments to understand the use and role of ICT in bringing them closer to citizens.

On the other hand, methodologies are shared to ensure a feasible process through the platforms and, above all, the services that can be generated to improve citizens’ quality of life. This process is also supported by evaluation tools and indicator systems, since it is of great interest to the UIC to stimulate innovation at the local level.

The Vice President of the organization referred to the huge role young computer sciences graduates can play in this process, by taking advantage of and putting into practice the knowledge acquired during their studies at different educational centers.

All these activities, Tatiana Delgado highlighted, are being carried out within an articulated platform for comprehensive territorial development, a framework project directed by the Ministry of Economy and Planning, of which the UIC is one of the associated national organizations.

“We have support from local governments and development groups, as well as from many entities. Together we act in accordance with this objective,” she explained.

GREATER WEB VISIBILITY

The “Cuban Website Monitor” is a computer platform that diagnoses the status of a group of variables and properties that must be taken into account in the development and administration of websites, to ensure better positioning in search engines, and thus greater content visibility, explained Ariagna González Landeiro, deputy director of Special Projects at the University of Computer Sciences (UCI).

Under this premise, the UCI has used the monitor in the implementation of the e-government presence stage, as a working tool that has provided systematic monitoring of Cuban websites.

“The results of the evaluations carried out on the websites have been shared at different times with the different territories, agencies and entities of the country,” González reported.

This tool has facilitated the grouping of Cuban digital spaces according to the province and the agencies to which they belong, fostering a specialized analysis in each case and as such, through exchanges, training, and advice on the use and positioning of websites, has helped identify a series of good practices adjusted to the characteristics of each entity, she added.

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

There are still many challenges ahead this 2019. In the case of DESOFT, the company will continue working on the support, updating, maintenance, and technical stability of the e-government project, as well as the creation of municipal portals along the same lines as the provincial sites, maintaining the principles of scalability, interoperability, and security, among other requirements that were taken into account from the presence stage.

The integration of citizens’ portals into the Management System for the Electronic Programming Guide, E-progTv, developed for the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, within the framework of Digital Television projects, is a task that will allow the population to access updated television programming schedules, including those of local channels, explained Elena Real Castro.

Deputy Minister Wilfredo González Vidal noted that work is focused on three lines, to systematically evaluate the access level and use of these portals by the population, which must maintain updated information and digital services for citizens, by reviewing their visibility, quality, and availability.

In addition, entities must organize user assistance processes, and respond to the population through the new digital communication means fostered by these portals, for which measures must be established that promote appropriate use.

Likewise, a work system must be organized or articulated with the main actors of the entity or territory in question, to keep citizens systematically informed of all of the government’s work, including the possibility of offering digital services. “That is, we must modernize public administration, offering services and encouraging the participation of citizens in these processes, as an exercise of transparency with the population,” the deputy minister stressed.

An example of the above is the new website of the Ministry of Justice at: https://www.minjus.gob.cu, which already offers online services related to criminal records, last will and testaments, and declarations of heirship.

“I believe that we have created the minimum conditions for the easiest stage, that of presence, but now it is necessary to continue working hard to computerize the internal and external processes of organizations, to give these government portals use value, and so that citizens feel the need and identify with these portals based on how up-to-date and useful the information and services they offer are,” concluded Wilfredo González Vidal.

TERRITORIAL WEBSITES

www.redpinar.gob.cu

www.redisla.gob.cu

www.artemisa.gob.

www.lahabana.gob.cu

www.mayaweb.gob.cu

www.matanceros.gob.cu

www.cienfuegos.gob.cu

www.soyvillaclara.gob.cu

www.espirituano.gob.cu

www.ciegodeavila.gob.cu

www.camaguey.gob.cu

www.lastunas.gob.cu

www.holguin.gob.cu

www.degranma.gob.cu

www.santiago.gob.cu

www.guantanamo.gob.cu

MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS TWITTER ACCOUNTS:

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
@DiazCanelB
President

Salvador Valdés Mesa
@SalvadorValdesM
First Vice President

Ramiro Valdés Menéndez
@ValdesMenendez
Vice President

Inés María Chapman Waugh
@InesMChapman
Vice President

Ulises Rosales del Toro
@RosalesdelToro
Vice President

Roberto Morales Ojeda
@DrRobertoMOjeda
Vice President

Meisi Bolaños Weiss
@MeisiBWeiss
Minister of Finance and Prices

Alfredo López Valdés
@AlfredoLpezVald
Minister of Industry

Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella
@elsa_ena
Minister of Education

Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila
@EduardoR_Davila
Minister of Transport

Iris Quiñones Rojas
@irisqr700927
Minister of Food Industry

René Mesa Villafaña
@Rene_MesaMICONS
Minister of Construction

Irma Martínez Castrillón
@IrmaMartinezC
Minister-President of the Central Bank of Cuba

José Angel Portal Miranda
@japortalmiranda
Minister of Public Health

Oscar Silvera
@OscarCubaMinjus
Minister of Justice

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla
@BrunoRguezP
Foreign Minister

Manuel Marrero Cruz
@MMarreroCruz
Minister of Tourism

Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero
@GustavoRollero
Minister of Agriculture

Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya
@ElbaRosaPM
Minister of Science, Technology and Environment

Alfonso Noya Martínez
@alfonso_noya
President of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT)

Margarita Marilene González Fernández
@MargaritaMGlez
Minister of Labor and Social Security

Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez
@AntonioRdguezR
President of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources

Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz
@R_Malmierca
Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment

Betsy Díaz Velázquez
@BetsyDazVelzqu1
Minister of Domestic Trade

Alejandro Gil Fernández
@AlejandroGilF
Minister of Economy and Planning

José Ramón Saborido Loidi
@jsaborido50
Minister of Higher Education

Raúl García Barreiro
@barreiro_raul
Minister of Energy and Mines

Jorge Luis Perdomo
@JorgeLuisPerd20
Minister of Communications

Alpidio Alonso Grau
@AlpidioAlonsoG
Minister of Culture

Very early on, Brazilian anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro warned that with the arrival of revolutionary technologies, “A true colonization is unfolding. The United States is playing its role with great efficiency, seeking complementarities that will make us permanently dependent on them,” adding, “Seeing this new civilization and all its threats, I fear that once again we will be peoples that do not gel – peoples that despite all our potential remain in second place.”

This scenario is linked to a program for Latin America and the Caribbean to control contents and the citizenry’s environments of participation, which is being implemented with total impunity, without the left paying even the slightest attention. In 2011, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved what is known in academic circles as an operation of “effective connectivity” – a plan outlined in a public Congressional document to expand use of new social media on the continent to promote U.S. interest in the region.

The document explains the interest in the continent’s social networks, “With more than 50% of the world’s population under 30 years of age, the new social media and technology resources that are so popular within this demographic group will continue to revolutionize communications in the future… Social media and technological initiatives based on political, economic, and social realities in Latin America will be crucial to the success of associated U.S. government efforts in the future.”

The plan summarizes the visit of a group of experts from several Latin American countries to the U.S. capitol to learn about policies and funding available in this arena, and concludes with specific recommendations for each of our countries that imply “minimizing critical risks of increased connectivity” for the United States, the leading government investing in infrastructure. The report noted that the number of social media users is growing exponentially, and that opportunities to influence political discourse and future policies are there for the taking.

What is behind this model of “effective” connectivity for Latin America? The vision of a human being as susceptible to domination via digital technology, and the clarity that so called social platforms are in no way neutral or providing a generic service, but are rather institutionalized and automated systems that design and manipulate connections, based on technological and ideological foundations.

What the U.S. government is projecting with its “operation” is the possibility that these tools create a simulated base and overthrow political systems that are not “convenient.” What role has it played in social media in the situations being faced today in Venezuela and Nicaragua, and in those we have seen previously in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Argentina?

Only large corporations have the computing capacity to process the colossal volume of data we put onto social media, with every clic on a search engine, via our cell phones, debit cards, electronic chats, and emails. The accumulated tranches and data processed permit them to create value. More connections equal more social capital. But the fundamental interests behind open data and the invitations to “share,” “like,” or retweet, etc, are not those of users, but rather those of the corporations.

This power gives the proprietors an enormous advantage over users in the battle to control information. Cambridge Analytica, the London branch of a U.S. contractor devoted to active military operations online for more 25 years, has intervened in some 200 elections around the world. Psychological operations were its modus operandi. Its objective: change public opinion and influence not through persuasion, but via information control. The novelty is not the use of flyers, Radio Free Europe, or TV Martí, but rather Big Data and artificial intelligence to entrap every citizen who leaves traces of information on the web in a bubble that is observable, parametrically designed, and predictable.

Cambridge Analytica was involved in electoral processes in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico, working against left-wing leaders. In Argentina, for example, the company participated in Mauricio Macri’s 2015 campaign, creating detailed psychological profiles and identifying persons open to a change of opinion, with the goal of influencing them with fake news and partial selections of information. As soon as he took office, Macri approved a decree which allowed him to keep official bodies’ data bases for use in campaigns in his favor, one among many which allowed him to undermine the legal and institutional base of communications established by left governments in the country.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, politics have become techno-politics, their most cynical variant. Alexander Nix himself, Cambridge Analytica CEO, boasted to clients that things “don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed,” and emphasized an unquestionable, empirical fact: the decreasing credibility of commercial advertising is directly proportionate to the increase of publicity on social media, highly personalized and brutally effective.

Anyone who visits the webpage of Facebook’s associates (Facebook Marketing Partners) can discover hundreds of companies devoted to buying and selling data, and interacting with the blue thumbs-up company. Some have even specialized in geographical areas and countries, like the Cisneros Group, that participated in the 2002 coup against President Chávez in Venezuela, a reseller of Facebook that controls the advertizing market in 17 countries of the region.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

These topics are still far removed from professional debates and the programs of progressive movements on the continent. Speeches demonizing or enamored of the new technology civilization abound, but missing are strategies and programs leading to action to construct a truly sovereign information and communications model, and make new technologies our own.

We have not been able to concretize a fiber optic channel of our own, a dream of Unasur. Neither a systematic strategy or a consistent, reliable legal framework exist to minimize U.S. control; assure that traffic on the web flows between neighboring countries; promote the use of technologies that guarantee confidentiality of communications; protect the region’s human resources; and overcome obstacles to the commercialization of tools, content, and digital services produced in our back yard.

Nor has much progress been made on a common, supranational communicational agenda or platforms where it might be implemented. We need networks of observatories, which – in addition to gathering basic statistics and issuing alerts on the colonization of our digital space – would allow for the recovery and promotion of best practices in the use of these technologies and of resistance efforts in the region, on the basis of the understanding that the success or failure of challenges to these new inequalities depends on political decisions.

No country of the South by itself – and much less an isolated organization – can find the resources to challenge the power of the right that is mobilized with one click.

The debate over catastrophes and popular culture was transcended some time ago. The stable world described by Umberto Eco no longer exists.

There are several solutions on the horizon and one might be that of creating our own liberatory tools, but the search for and construction of such alternatives present more than technical-scientific problems. This route depends above all on collective action, in the medium and long run with both a tactical and strategic point of view, in favor of face-to-face and virtual communication that facilitates a change in social relations and technology to serve our peoples. Let’s do it, we don’t have much time.

( Por Rosa Miriam Elizalde)

“Among projections for this year, ETECSA intends to install 150 new hard-wired and wireless navigation areas; provide more than 52,000 home connections; increase by 5,000 data services to national entities; establish other agreements with enterprises to advance the development of contents on a national level; and initiate internet service for cellular telephones,” she explained.

Creating required technological infrastructure, and generating Internet content along with digital services in Cuba are the two principal axes of the national computerization policy – a reflection of the will of the Party, state, and government to develop information and telecommunications technologies in the country, through a program that includes 21 projects involving the collaboration of various agencies and ministries.

Noteworthy among these are, for example, the development of technological tools associated with government and electronic commerce; digital television; the assembly of computer equipment and devices with broad participation of industry and national software enterprises, and others, indicated Wilfredo González Vidal, deputy minister of Communications.

Other aspects of the process are the digitalization of public records; expansion of online payment and banking services; the installation of 936 automatic tellers in 69 municipalities; and the four million magnetic debit cards in use.

In the case of sectors as important as health and education, progress has been made in the comprehensive hospital management system and digital clinical histories, as well as public platforms created to promote online learning, such as Cubaeduca.

This information was shared during a panel discussion yesterday, prior to the inauguration of the 18th International Informatics Conference and Fair, which will run through the 23rd in Havana’s International Conference Center and the Pabexo exposition grounds. On hand for the occasion were Miriam Nicado, Political Bureau member and rector of the University of Computer Sciences, as well as Maimir Mesa Ramos, minister of Communications.

(Granma)

Interestingly, these same mass media reported a few months ago, about the licenses granted by the US President to American companies in the sector to reach investment agreements with Cuban state company ETECSA in order to improve Internet on the Island (2).

And more recently, we´d read data reflecting a tangible improvement of connectivity in the country: “Cuba exceeded three million internet users (…) in 2014 by adding 125,000 new ones” (3) and that from the 118 currently navigation rooms, the Cuban population will have 300 public rooms navigation at end of 2015 (4); that have been recently authorized the first 35 public wi-fi access points (5); or that the connection fee has been lowered by almost 50 % of the last value (6).

Despite it´s still very modest global reach, growth are significant and the number of people that are using Internet in Cuba is now close to 28 % (7). From these data two conclusions that contradict the media discourse can emerge. The first one is that far from limiting or censor the Internet, the Cuban Executive has a clear desire to promote the network in line with its plans for economic development (8); and –in the same way- that the number one cause of low connectivity, the high cost of the service and technological backwardness had been (and still is) a consequence of the US blockade (9).

Several websites have published information on plans and strategies of the Cuban government -even under discussion- focused on the development of broadband in the island in the coming years, and that would include, among other objectives (10): reach for 2018 100% of broadband connectivity in strategic sectors of the country; and –an important data- extend connection to 50% of households with a cost that not exceed the 5 % of the average wage in 2020 (11).

But far from highlighting this upward projection, what do continue to highlight the international media? These media highlight that although rates –which have been reduced to half- are still extremely expensive; and that -despite that 28% of the population is already connected to Internet- only 5% of cuban population use to connect from their homes (12).

It seems that these means, looking that time -and arguments- are exhausted, are still clinging to a static photograph. Meanwhile, rapid changes in Cuban society are dismantled each and every one of the media myths (13) (14).

(1) http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2014/10/141013_tecnologia_cuba_internet_falta_wifi_lv

(2) http://www.laopinion.com/2015/07/19/al-normalizar-relaciones-diplomaticas-propuesta-bipartidista-ampliaria-acceso-a-internet-en-cuba/

(3) http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/cuba-es/article31704482.html

(4) http://www.efe.com/efe/america/sociedad/cuba-proyecta-tener-mas-300-salas-navegacion-para-finales-2015/20000013-2530583

(5) http://www.eldiario.es/turing/cubanos-cuentan-zonas-internet-wi-fi_0_404909532.html

(6) http://www.20minutos.com/noticia/21146/0/cuba-reduce-mitad/precio-tasas/internet/

(7) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Pa%C3%ADses_por_n%C3%BAmero_de_usuarios_de_Internet

(8) http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2014/12/12/editorial-de-granma-cuba-esta-decidida-a-conectarse-con-el-mundo/#.Ve1vin1GQ3g

(9) http://www.telesurtv.net/bloggers/Quien-bloquea-a-quien-Cuba-y-la-Internet-20150204-0002.html

(10) http://progresosemanal.us/20150608/estrategia-filtrada-el-camino-de-internet-en-cuba/

(11) http://www.chiringadecuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Estrategia-Nacional-de-la-Banda-Ancha-en-Cuba.pdf

(12) http://www.elmundo.es/blogs/elmundo/habaname/2015/08/21/wifi-callejero.html

(13) http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php/lecciones-de-manipulacion/52373-la-desbandada-que-no-se-produjo-en-cuba-tras-reforma-migratoria-descoloca-a-la-prensa-internacional

(14) http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php/lecciones-de-manipulacion/62806-cuba-itercer-pais-de-america-latina-en-plenitud-de-vida-para-homosexuales-o-regimen-homofobo-que-los-persigue

(José Manzaneda, Cubainformacion´s coordinator)