the island has cut the internet since Sunday, but the Cubans have found an alternative

When the clock struck eight in the evening on Sunday, as the world was closely monitoring via social media what was happening in Cuba, Havana cut the internet; the “only weapon” available to Cubans to demonstrate their protest. Until this Tuesday, the service still did not appear.

The protests, widely broadcast on social media, began spontaneously on Sunday morning, a very rare event in a country ruled by the Communist Party, where the only gatherings allowed are usually those of the party.

“Down with the dictatorship”, “Let them go” or “The homeland and life!” , was the cry in chorus of several thousand demonstrators in San Antonio de los Baños, a small town of 50,000 inhabitants about thirty kilometers from Havana. Over the hours, the demonstration reached the capital and was reflected on Facebook lives.

the Internet

Internet is young on the Caribbean island. Landed in 2018, in a land locked in the middle of the sea.

It was a success for everyone. It started for a few in the houses. And it stretched for the rest in cybercafés or places with wi-fi connection paid by the hour.

By the end of 2020, 4.4 million of Cuba’s 11.2 million inhabitants already surfing with their mobile phones.

The Internet has opened up a new world. It has become a tool to modernize a country that dragged into obsolescence. And in a cheap communication option between Cuba and its diaspora spread all over the world who have to pay in dollars for often poor quality telephone calls.

It has also become a threat. And in the midst of this surprising wave of protests calling for “freedom”, the government cut it.

In dialogue with Cuban sources, who prefer to keep their identity, at the moment in Cuba Internet comes and goes. Like a faucet, the government turns it on for a while in some provinces and then turns it off again. He does not warn.

Protesters in Cuba have found their way to upload videos and audios to the web to show what is happening in front of a government that gives little or no information.

Facebook, the preferred platform

The Cuban travels via Facebook, is your favorite platform. This is the one you find the easiest to use. There they upload live videos. But since the signal has been cut, the alternative is to be attentive when it comes back to download the images.

The formula is as follows: people film with their cell phones, wait for the signal to return and download their videos.

For example, on Monday, the signal He returned an hour to Cienfuegos. The service surprisingly appears and disappears in the same way. “You have to be vigilant all the time to see if it comes back. “

Therefore, those who are inattentive find themselves without downloading what they have to show.

Some upload videos. Others, audios with serious complaints, which are impossible to confirm.

Latest versions they talk about a dead man. A protester beaten to death by the police. But the information could not be confirmed.

Internet is managed in Cuba by a single company, the public operator Etecsa, who bills fertilizer in dollars at an average price of between $ 21 and $ 24 in a country where the monthly salary is US $ 30.

Connecting without internet is possible

Faced with the lack of connection, protesters in Cuba find an alternative: an “APK”.

An “APK” is an external application downloadable for free on a mobile phone outside stores applications such as the App Store or the Play Store.

The APK in question is called “Psiphon”. To download it, you must wait for the internet signal to arrive. Once installed, you have to put the phone in airplane mode for 5 or 6 seconds, then connect to 4G and activate the APK to have internet.

“This is the latest news”, sources say to Bugle, but they admit that most Cubans don’t have a premium phone and can’t download it. Most have phones, but they buy the most affordable.

APK download notices are avidly circulating on motorized Facebook from the United States.

It was another success. Most Cubans are looking to download videos or send it to their relatives abroad to download on social networks.

Embassy

There is another alternative: free wifi service offered by the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

Also via Facebook, notices that warn against leaving the embassy’s wi-fi service so that “Cubans can transmit the crimes of the regime to the world.”

What is really happening in Cuba continues to be difficult information to compare.

The latest reports speak of Cuba’s requests for help in Venezuela to send reinforcements to quell the protest, reinforcements that have already arrived with Cubans already deployed in Venezuela.

For sources consulted by Bugle, the Cuban government has all the tools to suppress the demonstrations, and “it will use them”. But the movement that has just woken up in Cuba does not want to fall asleep, they say.

“This is the start of a new stage. Cubans have discovered something new after a long period of desperation. This is a discovery. The Cuban people are discovering freedom, ”they say.

Shouting “Libertad” in the streets of Havana has so far been unthinkable. To speak ill of the government, you had to speak quietly.

“The Cuban people have already understood that they can and that will give them strength,” they say.

Internet is for the moment his only weapon.

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