U.S. prevents Cuba from connecting to telecommunications networks

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 16 (ACN) As part of its hostile policy, the United States (U.S.) government has prevented Cuba from connecting to international telecommunications networks through fiber optic cables, which pass near the island, thus limiting Internet access, the use of information, exchange and creation of knowledge.

This violates the right of Cubans to use that service and the need to expand and diversify the country's international connectivity, a strategic measure, Wilfredo González Vidal, First Deputy Minister of Communications, told the Cuban News Agency.

The economic, commercial and financial blockade continues to be the main obstacle to a better flow of information and broad access to the Internet and information and communications technologies (ICT) for our people, he insisted.

He also denounced the double standards used by the U.S. government to develop actions for that purpose, while using cyberspace for subversive purposes, against sovereignty and the legal and constitutional order, as well as international norms, in an attempt to overthrow the political system on the island.

He recalled that in November 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice recommended to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a permit for the installation of the first submarine telecommunications cable between the two nations.

Under the false and absurd pretext that Havana represents a counterintelligence threat to the United States, the ARCOS-1 USA Inc. underwater cable system was then prevented from including Cuba in that network, which connects 24 landing points in 15 countries of the continent.

The prohibition increased the risk for the ALBA cable, which in 2011 Venezuela deployed in the far east of the island, given that it is a seismic zone of considerable activity and, therefore, is exposed to suffer exceptional situations, explained the first deputy minister of Communications.


Although the Cuban response was not long in coming, since it will expand connectivity, the fact that since January of this year the country has been connected to a second cable, known as Arimao, which is linked to Martinique through a landing station in Cienfuegos, is still a cost in the millions.

The official explained that its extension, of some 2,500 kilometers, exceeds that of Cuba, and even more the distance with the connection points or nodes of the ARCOS-1 USA Inc. system, which surrounds the island and that the United States government suggested to the FCC not to include it in that project, since it would constitute a danger to national security.

Since interconnections with operators cannot be made directly in the US territory, where the main interconnection nodes are located, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (Etecsa) is obliged to extend the international network with points in the United Kingdom, Jamaica and Venezuela, which entails expenditures of US$ 1.4 billion.

According to the interviewee, the regulations adopted by the White House for Telecommunications/ICT do not provide financial credit, nor do they provide protection against the possible seizure of Cuban assets, both financial and in equipment, and the interruption of the service.

He assured that this is not the first time that this has happened in the history of communications between the two countries, for which reason the US blockade and the hostile measures that accompany it hinder the establishment of commercial relations between companies of one nation and the other.

On repeated occasions the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has said that Cuba wishes to live in peace, and to maintain relations with the US, as with the rest of the international community, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, without interference of any kind, he said.