To Nobody’s Surprise Cuba is Second Worse in Censorship and Violation of Internet Users’ Rights

To Nobody's Surprise Cuba is Second Worse in Censorship and Violation of
Internet Users' Rights / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on October 8, 2013

There is no exam that the Castro dictatorship has passed to prove that
it is not a tyrannical, despotic, cruel, repressive, abusive, corrupt
and inefficient regime.

Freedom House has once again tested the freedom of use of internet in
the countries which make up the world's concert of nations and Cuba,
Castro's Cuba, as it couldn't be any other way, was placed in the
penultimate position on the list, together with China and only just
above Iran.

Freedom House documented how the Internet in Cuba continues to be — when
it's not an unattainable fiction for 95% of the population — a trap by
the political police to control those who use the internet for personal
means and to prosecute and jail those who use it to denounce the
violations which are committed by the regime against its people who
demand liberty, justice and democracy in Cuba.

Among this wide spectrum of the harassed, persecuted and imprisoned by
the military arm of the Raúl Castro Ruz dictatorship, are the peaceful
activists who are unceasing in their efforts to restore freedom to Cuba.
Be they bloggers, members of organizations like the UNPACU or the Ladies
in White, intellectuals like Angel Santiesteban-Prats or independent
journalists.

The period which the report focuses on is the period from May 2012 to
April 2013. As a result it does not include the opening of the internet
access points which were created last June that would have "added" some
points in favor of the regime, but then these were drastically lost by
allegations that have been made about them, for example, that the right
buttons of the mice on the PCs were deactivated, preventing users from
using the option to "copy and paste".

Later also, the repression against independent journalists and activists
in general who denounce all the abuses of the regime across Twitter has
grown so overwhelmingly, reaching the highest figures of the last four
years. Among the most scandalous cases of State violence against an
indefensible woman who was only defending her ideas, it is necessary to
add the case of the actress and blogger Ana Luisa Rubio who, due to the
time-frame, doesn't appear in the report.

Controlling the use of the internet and along with that applying
outright censorship to the sites which Cubans can access or not,
violating the privacy of emails, suspending accounts, and what is much
more serious, exercising direct violence on those who make use of
"almost" free internet thanks to connections supplied by foreign
embassies or tweets via telephone at unfair prices paid for by
international solidarity, it is possible for the state monopoly
telephone companies, while lending themselves to the political police so
that they can subjugate and rail against its users, to profit
shamelessly at their mercy.

My objective here is not to relay the information contained in Freedom
House's report, but to highlight the huge value it has and appeal to all
those who read it and share it so that the world knows the truth about
what happens in Cuba through serious and well documented reports. For
those who still don't quite believe or understand what is happening in
Cuba for over half a century, it is essential to be aware of this type
of reliable information and not the the vast number of pamphlets which
circulate everywhere, without foundation and which do not help to give
any credibility to the cause for a just and free Cuba.

The Editor

Download and read the report by clicking on the link here.

Freedom House Cuba 2012-2013

Translated by Shane J. Cassidy

7 October 2013

Source: "To Nobody's Surprise Cuba is Second Worse in Censorship and
Violation of Internet Users' Rights / Angel Santiesteban | Translating
Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/to-nobodys-surprise-cuba-is-second-worse-in-censorship-and-violation-of-internet-users-rights-angel-santiesteban/