“The reason why Cubans don’t have access to 21st century telecommunications — like smartphones, like access to the Internet — is because it is illegal in Cuba.”
— Marco Rubio on Dec. 17
There’s a good chance most Cubans won’t be able to read this article.
And the reason why — lack of Internet access — is a point of a contention between President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Obama this month announced sweeping changes to the United States’ decades-old isolation policy against Cuba, promising renewed diplomatic relations and an easing of regulations on commerce.
“I believe in the free flow of information,” Obama said. “Unfortunately, our sanctions on Cuba have denied Cubans access to technology that has empowered individuals around the globe.”
Rubio, a Florida Republican and a Cuban-American, chastised Obama’s comments in an animated rebuttal.
“The president said that the people of Cuba do not have access to advanced, 21st century modern technology for communications and telecommunications because of the U.S. embargo. That is false,” Rubio said. “The reason why they don’t have access to 21st century telecommunications — like smartphones, like access to the Internet — is because it is illegal in Cuba.”
Cuba has less access to the Internet than most countries in the world. It is the only country in the Western Hemisphere with an Internet access rating of “not free” by Freedom House, a human rights advocacy group.
Citing the National Statistics Office in Cuba, Freedom House said about 23 percent of Cubans have access to the Internet. But those numbers, while very low, are likely inflated: Many of those people have access only to a tightly controlled Cuban intranet that includes email and government-approved sites. Outside experts, Freedom House said, estimate only about 5 percent of people have access to the full World Wide Web.
The government of Cuba maintains almost complete control over telecommunications industries in the country, and it uses a mix of repressive policies and price gouging to keep Cubans offline. Regulations essentially prohibit private Internet use in homes, and it is illegal to access the Internet outside government-controlled methods. On top of that, the cost of even a basic computer is more than twice the average Cuban’s annual salary.
Bloggers and dissenters are quickly shut down and, in many cases, imprisoned. Alan Gross, the imprisoned American contractor released by Cuba this month, was arrested for building telecommunications infrastructure on the island.
As for smartphones, most mobile phones can send messages, even internationally, but cannot access the Internet. GPS and satellite capabilities are prohibited. An iPhone, if procured, would be a pretty dumb phone in Cuba.
Cuban officials have recently indicated a potential shift in policy that could open the Internet to personal and mobile usage, but it’s also possible it will be limited to Cuba’s intranet and email.
Such promises have been made before. There’s no guarantee that will change if U.S. policy does.
“I think Rubio is closer to the truth than Obama,” said Larry Press, an information systems professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who writes a blog on Internet access in Cuba.
Rubio was not quite right, however, when he said that Obama’s comment was unequivocally false.
Obama said that U.S. sanctions on Cuba “have denied Cubans access to technology.” This is true to a certain extent. Part of Cubans’ access problem has to do with the exorbitant cost of technology, relative to how poor the country is, and lifting those restrictions could help that problem.
Our ruling
Rubio said that rather than the U.S. embargo, the reason why Cubans “don’t have access to 21st century telecommunications — like smartphones, like access to the Internet — is because it is illegal in Cuba.”
“Illegal” is probably the wrong word. There are some ways to legally access the Internet in Cuba, but not in one’s home or on mobile devices, and not by connecting to the full World Wide Web. Internet use is primarily restricted to government-run access points that are heavily monitored. The usage rates, set by the regime, are so expensive that it is cost-prohibitive for most Cubans to log on. Political dissenters are barred from publishing online and are punished if they do. The end result is similar to full prohibition: Cuba has one of the lowest rates of Internet access in the world.
The U.S. sanctions have played a role in limited availability of technology. Rubio is right, however, that the Cuban government has nearly complete control over the Internet. That isn’t a result of sanctions on telecommunication business activity in Cuba. Even if the United States fully repeals its embargo, government control over Internet access could continue.
We rate Rubio’s statement Mostly True.
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