In a surprising display of sincerity, the U.S. government has just admitted that it is Washington that prevents Cuba from accessing the Internet. The Department of Justice has recommended to the Federal Communications Commission to deny a permit for the island to link to the submarine cable that interconnects the Caribbean countries with the American continent.

The argument is ridiculous. It alleges the alleged danger of Cuba’s relations with other “foreign adversaries” such as China or Russia, which could use the island as a gateway to hack into the U.S. network, which is treating those who read these recommendations as minors, to put it mildly.

The Arcos-1 network, which passes 32 kilometers from Havana and has been active for more than two decades, connects 24 Internet anchor points in 15 countries of the continent, most of them with long-standing and fluid relations with the “foreign adversaries” that unveil Washington.

No one connects to the Internet by invoking magic words. At least three conditions are required: the telecommunications network, the computers or electronic equipment that will dialogue with their peers in the world and a culture of use of these technologies. If you live on an island, you need submarine cables to link to continental networks more than anywhere else. In fact, 99 percent of the world’s data traffic, onshore or off, travels through underwater cables, mostly fiber optic, totaling more than a million kilometers.

The Internet was conceived as a network where information travels through alternative paths, to ensure the vitality of data circulation. Its birth is due to the order issued in 1962 by President John Kennedy, after the October or missile crisis, which showed the vulnerability of unidirectional command and control systems in the event of a nuclear attack. However, the network’s redundancy is more limited today than when the Internet first emerged, because almost all fiber optic cables lead to the United States, where the backbone of the network is located.

This unbalanced structure of the cables that make up the Internet means that any information transmitted from Latin America to Europe, even if it is sent from a service in Patagonia and from local servers, almost always passes through Miami. In addition, the large fiber optic pipes that cross the oceans are owned by a handful of corporations linked to the intelligence services, as shown in his revelations by agent Edward Snowden.

Therefore, it is not Cuba that has a long and documented tradition of hacking, spying and control of the Internet. Without going any further, a joint research report published last September by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and the Internet security company Qihoo 360 Technology, accuses the U.S. National Security Agency of having directed more than 10,000 cyber attacks against China, with the theft of 140 gigabytes of relevant data.

It is impossible to swallow the story of Cuba as a cybersecurity threat under these conditions. What is relevant here is that the Department of Justice admits for the first time, through a bureaucratic recommendation, that Washington prevents the connection to the submarine cable, so perhaps someday they will recognize that among their many blockades to the island is also the impossibility of acquiring information technology and the enormous difficulties to access digital services.

Since 1996 and thanks to an infamous regulation, known as the Torricelli Law or Law for Democracy in Cuba, it has been possible to connect the island to the Internet, but only to access information content, because there are strict limits to the services that a Cuban user can enjoy. Here you cannot see Google Earth, or use the Zoom videoconferencing system, or download free Microsoft software, or buy on Amazon, or acquire international domains that seem to favor tourism to Cuba, to mention some of the more than 200 hundred blocked services and applications. When Internet Service Providers (ISPs) detect an access from Cuba, these companies, whether they are in California, Madrid, Paris or Toronto, act as a funnel and warn that “you live in a forbidden country”.

The public recommendation of the Department of Justice to prevent Cuba’s connection to the submarine cable is almost welcome. Perhaps by that path of frank denials they will someday come to recognize the other barbarities they do to us.

In a surprising display of sincerity, the U.S. government has just admitted that it is Washington that prevents Cuba from accessing the Internet. The Department of Justice has recommended to the Federal Communications Commission to deny a permit for the island to link to the submarine cable that interconnects the Caribbean countries with the American continent.

The argument is ridiculous. It alleges the alleged danger of Cuba’s relations with other “foreign adversaries” such as China or Russia, which could use the island as a gateway to hack into the U.S. network, which is treating those who read these recommendations as minors, to put it mildly.

The Arcos-1 network, which passes 32 kilometers from Havana and has been active for more than two decades, connects 24 Internet anchor points in 15 countries of the continent, most of them with long-standing and fluid relations with the “foreign adversaries” that unveil Washington.

No one connects to the Internet by invoking magic words. At least three conditions are required: the telecommunications network, the computers or electronic equipment that will dialogue with their peers in the world and a culture of use of these technologies. If you live on an island, you need submarine cables to link to continental networks more than anywhere else. In fact, 99 percent of the world’s data traffic, onshore or off, travels through underwater cables, mostly fiber optic, totaling more than a million kilometers.

The Internet was conceived as a network where information travels through alternative paths, to ensure the vitality of data circulation. Its birth is due to the order issued in 1962 by President John Kennedy, after the October or missile crisis, which showed the vulnerability of unidirectional command and control systems in the event of a nuclear attack. However, the network’s redundancy is more limited today than when the Internet first emerged, because almost all fiber optic cables lead to the United States, where the backbone of the network is located.

This unbalanced structure of the cables that make up the Internet means that any information transmitted from Latin America to Europe, even if it is sent from a service in Patagonia and from local servers, almost always passes through Miami. In addition, the large fiber optic pipes that cross the oceans are owned by a handful of corporations linked to the intelligence services, as shown in his revelations by agent Edward Snowden.

Therefore, it is not Cuba that has a long and documented tradition of hacking, spying and control of the Internet. Without going any further, a joint research report published last September by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and the Internet security company Qihoo 360 Technology, accuses the U.S. National Security Agency of having directed more than 10,000 cyber attacks against China, with the theft of 140 gigabytes of relevant data.

It is impossible to swallow the story of Cuba as a cybersecurity threat under these conditions. What is relevant here is that the Department of Justice admits for the first time, through a bureaucratic recommendation, that Washington prevents the connection to the submarine cable, so perhaps someday they will recognize that among their many blockades to the island is also the impossibility of acquiring information technology and the enormous difficulties to access digital services.

Since 1996 and thanks to an infamous regulation, known as the Torricelli Law or Law for Democracy in Cuba, it has been possible to connect the island to the Internet, but only to access information content, because there are strict limits to the services that a Cuban user can enjoy. Here you cannot see Google Earth, or use the Zoom videoconferencing system, or download free Microsoft software, or buy on Amazon, or acquire international domains that seem to favor tourism to Cuba, to mention some of the more than 200 hundred blocked services and applications. When Internet Service Providers (ISPs) detect an access from Cuba, these companies, whether they are in California, Madrid, Paris or Toronto, act as a funnel and warn that “you live in a forbidden country”.

The public recommendation of the Department of Justice to prevent Cuba’s connection to the submarine cable is almost welcome. Perhaps by that path of frank denials they will someday come to recognize the other barbarities they do to us.

Source: Network in Defense of Humanity,  translation Resumen Latinoamericano – US