Cuban Bloggers Defy Government Control

Average Cubans Are Now Allowed Computers, But The Government Still Limits Internet Access

(AP)  Only a month has passed since ordinary Cubans won the right to own computers, and the government still keeps a rigid grip on Internet access.

But that hasn't stopped thousands from finding their way into cyberspace. And a daring few post candid blogs about life in the communist-run country that have garnered international audiences.

Yoani Sanchez writes the "Generation Y" blog and gets more than a million hits a month, mostly from abroad - though she has begun to strike a chord in Cuba. On her site and others, anonymous Cubans offer stinging criticisms of their government.

But it isn't simple. To post her blog, Sanchez dresses like a tourist and slips into Havana hotels with Web access for foreigners. It costs about $6 an hour and she can't afford to stay long given the price and the possibility someone might catch her connecting without permission.

It's a testament to the ingenuity and black-market prowess Cubans have developed living on salaries averaging $20 a month, with constant restrictions and shortages.

The connections Cuban bloggers are making with the outside world via the Internet are irreversible, said Sanchez, who this month won the Ortega and Gasset Prize for digital journalism, a top Spanish media award.

"With each step we take in that direction, it's harder for the government to push us back," she said.

On an island where many censor themselves to avoid trouble, Sanchez says "Generation Y" holds nothing back.

"It's about how I live," she said. "I think that technically, there are no limits. I have talked about things like Fidel Castro, and you know how taboo that can be."

But she added that "there are some ethical limits. I would never call for violence, for instance."

Since taking over from his ailing brother Fidel in February, Raul Castro has lifted bans on Cubans buying consumer electronics, having cell phones and staying in luxury tourist hotels.

While the changes have bolstered the new president's popularity, most simply legalized what was common practice. In a typically frank recent posting, Sanchez noted that many Cubans already had PCs, cell phones and DVD players bought on the black market.

"Legally recognizing what were already facts prospering in the shadows is not the same as allowing or approving something," she wrote. Cuba's leaders are responding to the inevitable, "but they won't soothe our hunger for change."

Authorities have made no sustained effort to stop Sanchez's year-old blog, though pro-government sites accuse her of taking money from opposition groups.

Only foreigners and some government employees and academics are allowed Internet accounts and these are administered by the state.

Ordinary Cubans can join an island-wide network that allows them to send and receive international e-mail. Lines are long at youth clubs, post offices and the few Internet cafes that provide access, but the rest of the Web is blocked - a control far stricter than even China's or Saudi Arabia's.

Still, thousands of Cubans pay about $40 a month for black market dial-up Internet accounts bought through third parties overseas or stolen from foreign providers. Or they use passwords from authorized Cuban government accounts that hackers swipe or buy from corrupt officials.

Sanchez said so many Cubans read her blog that fans stop her on the street.

Generation Y takes its title from a Cuban passion for names beginning in Y. It offers witty and biting accounts of Cubans' everyday struggles against government restrictions at every turn.

Some of the bloggers hew to the belief that openness is the best answer to official surveillance.

"By signing your name, giving your opinions out loud and not hiding anything, we disarm their efforts to watch us," Sanchez wrote on her blog.

On a blog called "Without Evasion," Eva Hernandez dared to mock "Granma," the official Communist Party newspaper, for taking its name from the American yacht that brought Castro and his rebels back to Cuba from Mexico to launch their armed rebellion in 1956.

"Cuba is the only country in the world whose principal newspaper, the official organ of the Communist Party and the official voice of the government, has the ridiculous name 'granny,"' she wrote. Piling on the heat, she added that the name "perpetuates the memory of that yacht that brought us so much that is bad."

Generation Y is maintained by a server in Germany, and Sanchez says the Cuban government periodically attempts to block her site within Cuba, though the problem is always cleared up within hours.

Administrators of the "Petrosalvaje" site also claim to struggle with government-imposed limits. A recent post called uncensored Internet access a "virtual raft" - a reference to the rafts on which Cubans flee to the United States.

The government is also into blogging - maintaining dozens of sites dedicated to promoting the island's image overseas.

"Raul needs time," reads a post on Kaosenlared.net, a forum based in Spain. "We are confident, calm and staying united in favor of the direction of our revolution." It is signed Rogelio Sarforat and was apparently posted from Cuba.

Reynaldo Escobar, Sanchez' husband and a former journalist for official media, now uses his own blog to criticize the government. He said Cuba pays supporters to flood the Internet with positive opinions.

He says he knows of nobody who would spend money to go on the Web and defend the system. "Everyone who argues in favor of the government is paid to do so, or does so because they have been asked to," he said

[downsteamjim]

Tobowater123: Tell us about the millions? 1000s?, 100?, dozens, or anyone who risked their lives trying to return to the Cuban paradise.

[stbs3]

cubajournal,In fact Batista was a democratically elected president from 1940-1944 when he lost reelection.
He became a dictator in 1952 when he staged a coup while running for president again and having the polls place him in last place. As his dictatorship grew more and more represive, he lost support of the U.S government (which cancelled arm shipments to Cuba in April of 1958).
Most people in Cuba (especially the academics, upper and professional class) started supporting Castro and his followers (In fact, most of the poor people supported Batista because in 1940 he had become elected in a coalition with the Cuban Communist Party and he was in favor of many government programs for the poor).
The U.S was hoping that a democratic government would return after Batista would be overthrown. What happened rather was a replacement of Batista''s 7 year dictatorship for a much bloodier and with zero tolerance to any constitutional rights (speech, press, bearing arms, free elections...) for 49 years and counting...

[rf35]

I wonder if Yoani is a "Dirty Sanchez!"

[factsearcher]

Cubans(that live in Cuba) have no idea what freedom is. They flee to the "freedom" of the USA. Then, when they arrive, "real life" sets in.
Sure,they can have freedom to say what they want without fear of jail in the USA. But now they have to bust their butt trying to make a living. The transition takes years. They knew how to manipulate the Cuban system to get along. That will not work here. Soon, the Cuban in this country will long for the former life in Cuba.
Partying, music,rum, Bucaneero,friendly people on the street, all these things the Cuban will miss and want here. big dissappointment. It won''''t happen here. If the Cuban Government were smart they should give all the "freedoms" to their people. If Cubans knew how tough it is in the USA and what they are "giving up" by moving here, they wouldn''''t risk their life in the open sea to come here.
Posted by bowater123
Absolutely out of touch... we can tell you have not lived and experience oppression, poverty, ration of food and basic needs...while you witness the government and tourists enjoying what should also be yours.You are right about one thing... They come to freedom and much is there to learn...work work work and save some.. something they haven''t had a chance to taste..not because they didn''t want to but because they are not allowed. Cubans haven''t been complaining about their way of living for nothing..And yes, they drink, dance and play dominoes.. what else is there to do to stay upbeat on an oppressed society?

[jmann27273]

Don''t Americans blog against government control, Asians blog against government control, europeans blog against government control,.......etc? So what is new?

[bowater123]

Cubans(that live in Cuba) have no idea what freedom is.
They flee to the "freedom" of the USA. Then, when they arrive, "real life" sets in.
Sure,they can have freedom to say what they want without fear of jail in the USA. But now they have to bust their butt trying to make a living. The transition takes years. They knew how to manipulate the Cuban system to get along. That will not work here. The black market system is not alive and well in the USA. you can''t pay a teacher $5.00 to pass a course. You can''t pay an offical $10.00 to put your form on top of the pile. Soon, the Cuban in this country will long for the former life in Cuba.
Partying, music, ***, rum, Bucaneero,friendly people on the street, all these things the Cuban will miss and want here. big dissappointment. It won''t happen here. If the Cuban Government were smart they should give all the "freedoms" to their people. If Cubans knew how tough it is in the USA and what they are "giving up" by moving here, they wouldn''t risk their life in the open sea to come here.

[cubajournal]

"Cuban''s are going to be free, says cfin5." It is up to everyone of us to define what "freedom" really is. To a Cuban, freedom is January 1, 1959, when a very despotic and corrupt "democrat," supported by the U.S. government, had to leave the island with his tail between his legs.

I have visited Yoanis blog, and she did not impress me. Every country has a right to choose what course they want to follow. Might does not make right, and capitalist money does not convince a lot of people.

[cfin5]

Cubans are going to be free,....and it must be by their own doing. No more foreign manipulations please. They can change how they live by tomorrow if they wanted. Hope it''s not a bloody affair. They know best, it''s their dirt.