Cuba tests online waters

Cubans are trained to use e-mail and the internet

Cuba has been gripped by internet fever. But going online is tightly controlled by the communist government, as Thembi Mutch writes in the first of three reports from Havana.

Jorge is a blackmarket trader, with good contacts. For $20 to $30 a month, he has procured an e-mail address and access to the web.

For ordinary Cubans, this is the only way to get online as the government controls access to the internet.

Jorge brought his online account from a friend of a friend who works in a government department and uses it after hours, using a special telephone number.

The internet, he says, is vital to him. Without his international contacts, he would go out of business.

Restricted access

He is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Cubans hungry for the web, who have found a way to go online.

Cuba is extremely confident of the future, we can manage any kind of technology

Carlos Mas Zabala, Cuban official

Cuba's Deputy Minster for Information Technology, Melchor Gill, is dismissive of the blackmarket trade in internet access.

"I think it is given more relevance than it deserves," he says.

While Cuba's communist government has sought to teach its citizens computer skills, it restricts full access to the internet.

Millions of Cubans have been taught how to use computers and send e-mail.

But the computers are linked to an island-wide network that works on the same protocols as the internet, but is not connected to it.

So far 300,000 people have taken advantage of government-run computer clubs.

Castro wants to promote the internet

There are more than 300 of these across Cuba. In practice, a club means three or four computers in a side room attached to the large post offices.

They are open most of the time, and for the equivalent of just under a week's wages, Cubans can buy a state-issued card that gives them an e-mail address.

There are also plans to introduce internal e-mail in banks, the post office and all government departments.

No politics

"Cuba is extremely confident of the future, we can manage any kind of technology," says Carlos Mas Zabala, director of Cuba's Centre for Informatics and Applied Systems of Culture.

"Our culture, our opinions, our identity are all easy to have on the internet."

I'm not allowed to even write on paper here. The government would shut down a web page immediately

Raul Rivero, Cuban Committee for Human Rights

His comments reflect how Cuba sees the web - as a means of showcasing the country's achievements in art, music and film.

Human rights activists are despondent about the chances of using the internet for anything remotely political.

"There is absolutely no chance of me setting up a page to tell the world of our political situation or human rights abuses," says Raul Rivero of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.

"Where would I access a computer? How would I buy a modem? I'm not allowed to even write on paper here.

"The government would shut down a web page immediately."

The Cuban media is tightly controlled by the government and journalists must operate within the confines of laws.

Private ownership of electronic media is prohibited by the constitution.

On Friday, we will be looking at how Cuba is seeking to create a computer-literate generation to rival software programmers in the West.