MIAMI, United States. – At least five reporters and collaborators from CubaNet on the Island have suffered internet service outages since this Tuesday, the eve of the May Day parade called by the Havana regime.
Osniel Carmona Breijo, Anay Remón, Vladimir Turró, Enrique Díaz and Alejandro Hernández Cepero confirmed to this medium that their internet service was partially or totally suspended since the afternoon of April 30.
“Since 4:00 or so yesterday afternoon I have not had data internet. Everyone around me has it, so I associate it with today’s situation, May Day,” said Carmona Breijo.
“Last night I also spent several hours without phone service; The cell phone did not show the signal and I learned that several people tried to call me and did not succeed,” he added.
For his part, Turró indicated that, since yesterday, to browse the Internet he must connect to another phone. “Right now I have a little bit of connection but it’s super slow,” he told CubaNet around 1:00 pm this Wednesday.
According to a 2019 Freedom House report, Cuba is the country (out of 70 analyzed) with the least internet freedom. In the same ranking, China occupies first place.
Since 2020, Cubans have reported total and partial outages of internet service, specifically during citizen protests or celebrations organized by the regime.
The most recent outages that are known took place on March 17 of this year, when protests occurred in various parts of the Island, mainly in the province of Santiago de Cuba.
In the areas where demonstrations were recorded and even in others where they were not, Cubans lost communication. Citizens of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguín and Ciego de Ávila were generally unable to connect to the internet to exchange information after the protests occurred.
“Cuba was the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean that cut off internet access in 2021,” concluded the report “The return of digital authoritarianism,” published by Access Now.
According to that report, the island’s regime responded to “the growing protests and demands for reform” by cutting off the internet and blocking social networks and virtual private networks (VPN).
“Governments use network outages as a tool not only to thwart and dismantle protests, but also to conceal human rights violations that are commonly linked to repression by security forces, particularly in countries that have authoritarian regimes.” or weak democracies,” Access Now concluded.
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2024-05-03 10:35:35
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