You are in a hurry! The app that seeks to connect the island’s Cubans to the Internet by bypassing censorship

Starting a signal with Wi-Fi repeaters from the US Embassy in Havana and another from the Guantánamo Naval Base would be a “quick alternative“For an open Internet in Cuba, he told the news agency. EFE Salvi Pascual, who created the Apretaste mobile application eight years ago! at Miami. to connect Cubans on the island to the network and bypass censorship.

“There are actions that are moral and correct to take, I’m not talking about putting a bomb, only a wifi repeater, like when you go to McDonald’s and they give you the InternetPascual says of the old idea of ​​the US government to bring the open internet to the island to counter censorship.

For this programmer, who created Squeeze! with the mission of connecting “thousands of Cubans on the internet in the cheapest, uncensored way“The amendment recently approved by the US Senate to create a technology investment fund for Cuba is”a good alternative“, corn not enough.

“I am glad they are taking action on the issue, they are trying to gain ground for the moment when the government of Cuba wants infrastructureSalvi talks about the amendment introduced by Florida Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and approved by the Senate on August 11.

The measure provides for the establishment of a Reserve fund to facilitate the provision of the Internet to citizens of Cuba “deprived of the free flow of information by the illegitimate Cuban Communist regime”.

Lack of political will

According to Pascual, a dozen transatlantic submarine cables that connect continents or countries to the large network pass near Cuba, but the island’s regime He showed no sign of wanting to connect to any of them and it works with the one from Venezuela.

“Most of these cables respond to collaborations between governments and private entities. Any of them has been opened in Cuba since the thaw (during the presidency of Barack Obama) so that the island can connect, ”he says.

The reason is “a lack of political will“And not a technological problem,” he explains.

“We should look in the hearts of our leaders (in Cuba) why they did not do it. I guess it’s because they don’t want to lose control of the island’s infrastructure. They do not want their service to go through an infrastructure that they do not fully understand”.

Pascual refers to the only internet provider on the island, ETECSA, which is the state.

“All the evidence we have gathered indicates that the cable that connects Cuba to Venezuela does not have all the bandwidth required. A cable is the same as a central water pipe, which must be good and with good flow, ”he explains.

Taking the Internet by plane, he points out that “this system is much slower and presents deficiencies when there are clouds and bad weather”.

“Cable Internet is the fastest, especially if it is fiber optic. It doesn’t degrade as much as the antenna, only if it doesn’t have some repeaters, the signal starts to degrade“, To explain.

If the United States acts to provide an open Internet for Cubans “would show that the lack of a good internet is not due to the embargo, but is 100% the responsibility of the Cuban government», He specifies.

Pascual affirms that “there is no international law prohibiting it”.

“At the Guantanamo naval base, there is a McDonald’s, the only one in Cuba. There you can put repeaters from T-Mobile, for example, ”he says confidently.

“We must incorporate more Cubans from abroad”

After what happened on July 11, when thousands of people took to the streets in Cuba to demand freedom and better living conditions amid a severe economic and health crisis, Pascual realized that his app has few users outside of Cuba.

Its mobile phone app, which uses email as a connection to reach people by bypassing censorship, has 98% of its users on the island, so it is now working on an improved version to attract foreigners.

At the end of September they will present “the improved version 8” of Apretaste !, “much faster and more user-friendly”, and which consumes “less data”, he explains.

Pascual says he wants to study in depth the amendment that requires the administration of US President Joe Biden that “facilitate free, open and uncensored access to the Internet for the Cuban people“, According to a statement published on the website of Senator Rubio.

“The (Cuban) government has a good grid for this. I think the “switch” to shut down the Internet is on the president’s table“He insists.

Regarding the so-called “Arab Spring”, which in 2011 was organized on social networks causing the departure of leaders in several countries, it is said that there is “it was not so easy to cut the internet flow” because “there was an Internet infrastructure in the hands of private companies”.

“But I don’t want to be an ominous bird. There are things going on in Cuba right now. The government knows that it will get out of hand one day and that it is between a rock and a hard place, ”he said.

(By Jorge Ignacio Pérez – EFE)

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