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What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

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Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#41

Post by firekvz »

joecool1029 wrote: post #20
firekvz wrote: post #7

I am not really sure of the agenda behind this post, but just a reminder that there is a submarine cable (ALBA-1) that connects Cuba and Venezuela and serves as a full time link and connects Cuba to the world and gives them FREE INTERNET through Venezuelan biggest ISP (Cantv). This free internet makes Venezuelans furious as our corrupt, dictatorship government rather give CUBA a big part of our own international conn…

>I am not really sure of the agenda behind this post Cuba, regardless of its government situation, should have multiple high speed links to the rest of the world. Assuming that you are posting from there, you would be in benefit of this. Having a single link makes it extremely vulnerable to outages caused by both technical and geopolitical issues. Filtering/control of their people's access is a real but separate issu…

Having 1 or 100 (they have 3) links, wont change anything

The gov controls everything and will use that to manilulate information and more

Problem is not amount of links, problem is their dictatorship gov.

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#42

Post by adolfojp »

dismalpedigree wrote: post #30
siscia wrote: post #12

Maybe a little off topic, but why the US are still so hostile against Cuba? Is there any real reason or credible threat that the small island could damage the US? It seems like US is holding the grudge way too long.

Cuba is a geographicly strategic location. It sits right in the middle of the Caribbean and makes up one side of each of the three choke points which allow shipping to/from the Gulf of Mexico US ports. A hostile regime left on its own could become a major threat to the US economy by making traversal of those straits hazardous to US shipments. This is major commodities. Petrochemicals, agriculture, raw ore, fertilizer…

That's a load of nonsense.

We don't live in the golden age of piracy when privateers ruled the sees.

We live in the age of Cuba's ports being within the range of cruise missiles from Florida.

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#43

Post by playguardin »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #37
yyyk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Posting this because there were many reports of Internet disruptions in Cuba and HN likes stuff about underwater cables. An unbuilt cable is unlikely to be related to current disruptions. It's much more likely the regime is using disruptions as an anti-protest tactic against the recent protests.

On the subject of anti-protest tactics, I was a little surprised to see BLM come out so openly in favor of the regime that was repressing protests and criticism of the government via police brutality. I would have thought Cuba would be a slam dunk for them.

[flagged]

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#44

Post by adolfojp »

antihero wrote: post #11
londons_explore wrote: post #8

Why isn't Cuba the country organising their own cable connection? There are plenty of nearish places to connect to if the US doesn't want to be involved.

Pretty hard to do big projects like this when you're sanctioned by the US and no company can work with you.

Telecom Italia helped built Cuba's communications network before the Cuban government bought their shares and privatized the company.

SES S.A. from Luxembourg connected Cuba to the world via satellite.

Telefónica of Spain owns a significant run of Caribbean undersea fiber. They're actively trying to increase their business with Cuba but Cuba refuses to open more of its communications network.

The following quote from José Ramón Machado Ventura, a high ranking Cuban official, offers an alternative explanation to why Cuba doesn't have better Internet.

http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2015-07-11/a-los-jovenes-...

>Todo el mundo sabe por qué en Cuba no hay más Internet, porque ello tiene un alto costo. Existen algunos que nos la quieren dar gratis, pero no lo hacen con el fin de que el pueblo cubano se comunique, sino con el propósito de penetrarnos y hacer trabajo ideológico para lograr una nueva conquista. Tenemos que poseer Internet, pero a nuestra forma, sabiendo que es una intención del imperialismo manejarla como una vía más de destruir a la Revolución.

Rough translation

>Everybody knows why cuba doesn't have more Internet, because it comes at a high cost. There are those who want to give it to us for free, but not with the intent of helping the Cuban people to communicate, but with the purpose of penetrating us and doing ideological work to create a new conquest. We need to have Internet, but our way, knowing that it is the intent of the imperialists to use it as a way to destroy the Revolution.

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#45

Post by throwaway894345 »

yardie wrote: post #40
throwaway894345 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the subject of anti-protest tactics, I was a little surprised to see BLM come out so openly in favor of the regime that was repressing protests and criticism of the government via police brutality. I would have thought Cuba would be a slam dunk for them.

Do you have a post of this? Last I look BLM, mistakenly, believes the protests are about the embargo. I haven't seen anything from them supporting or criticizing the regime.

Their social media post[0] blaming the embargo is parroting the Cuban Dictatorship’s response, and the post itself refers to the embargo as “undermining the rights of the Cuban people to choose their own government” which IMO strongly implies that the Dictatorship is the rightful government of the Cuban people. This seems like pretty clear support of the Cuban Dictatorship to me.

Note that, like other communist countries, Cuba hasn’t had free elections since the Communist Party took over. So the “US undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government” would be an absurd error—it’s very, very hard to believe BLM doesn’t know this and accidentally stumbled into rote Communist rhetoric.

Similarly, it’s pretty hard to believe that the they think the US embargo is responsible for the disconnection of Internet, the police brutality toward protesters, etc or other overtly authoritarian facets of the protests. Nor the lack of medicine or food considering the embargo specifically allows those items, but Cuban policy effectively prevents Cubans from accessing those items (the government fears that it’s citizens might become sympathetic to US interests if the US is the one feeding and treating its population).

Again, these are people who see “authoritarianism” in every aspect of US government and culture, and they accidentally overlooked it in Cuba?

[0]: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRU5kYYp-UU/

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#46

Post by ncmncm »

huntertwo wrote: post #18
firekvz wrote: post #7

I am not really sure of the agenda behind this post, but just a reminder that there is a submarine cable (ALBA-1) that connects Cuba and Venezuela and serves as a full time link and connects Cuba to the world and gives them FREE INTERNET through Venezuelan biggest ISP (Cantv). This free internet makes Venezuelans furious as our corrupt, dictatorship government rather give CUBA a big part of our own international conn…

Also not trying to be political, I don’t believe the Cuban embargo/sanctions are due to the existence of a dictatorship. The US has happily done business with, propped up, and installed various dictatorships in the past and continues to do so as well. These dictatorships have performed atrocities similar to or worse than those that the Cuban government performs. Examples include Spain, Argentina, Chile, and perhaps B…

Then, of course, there is China, where practically everything you can see around you was imported from. So, communism is also not an explanation.

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#47

Post by cookie_monsta »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #38
siscia wrote: post #12

Maybe a little off topic, but why the US are still so hostile against Cuba? Is there any real reason or credible threat that the small island could damage the US? It seems like US is holding the grudge way too long.

I think the US does not want to trade extensively with who they perceive to be an oppressive regime (and I share that perception, for transparency).

Hmmmm, yeah except https://worldbeyondwar.org/50-oppressive-governments-support...

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#48

Post by throwaway894345 »

cookie_monsta wrote: post #47
throwaway894345 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the US does not want to trade extensively with who they perceive to be an oppressive regime (and I share that perception, for transparency).

Hmmmm, yeah except https://worldbeyondwar.org/50-oppressive-governments-support...

US sanctions exist to compell countries to make steps toward freedom, they don’t indicate a ranking of countries by freedom. Consequently the US will lift or ease sanctions toward a country that is progressing and impose or increase sanctions towards countries that regress. Of course there are many other factors—if US trade with a country isn’t important to that country, then the US is not likely to impose sanctions in the first place. In other cases, the US may have strategic reasons for working with a given country (an ally against a worse evil). So we shouldn’t expect them to serve as an accurate ranking of countries’ human rights records—that’s not the intent; the goal is to encourage countries to improve or cooperate.

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#49

Post by sudosysgen »

eganist wrote: post #39
sudosysgen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually delusional, I'm sorry. Cuba possess exactly 0 anti-shipping threat to the US. There is no feasible scenario where Cuba develops enough, with a population of 11 million, to become a military threat to the US. It could fire off a few missiles before the positions get destroyed, sure, but so could any nation with an SSK. The reason for the enmity towards Cuba is nothing else than the Monroe Doctrine, an…

> This is actually delusional, I'm sorry. > Cuba possess exactly 0 anti-shipping threat to the US. There is no feasible scenario where Cuba develops enough, with a population of 11 million, to become a military threat to the US. It could fire off a few missiles before the positions get destroyed, sure, but so could any nation with an SSK. > The reason for the enmity towards Cuba is nothing else than the Monroe Doctri…

It's not a grudge, but it is basically childish. The US has a doctrine that no state in the Western hemisphere can be under the influence of someone other than the US.

The purpose isn't defensive, it's agressive, and it obviously furthers US interests if having the most power possible fits your definition.

As for a citation, the Monroe doctrine is almost official.

Re: What Became of the Arcos Undersea Cable Connection to Cuba? (2020)

#50

Post by hakfoo »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #48
cookie_monsta wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmmm, yeah except https://worldbeyondwar.org/50-oppressive-governments-support...

US sanctions exist to compell countries to make steps toward freedom, they don’t indicate a ranking of countries by freedom. Consequently the US will lift or ease sanctions toward a country that is progressing and impose or increase sanctions towards countries that regress. Of course there are many other factors—if US trade with a country isn’t important to that country, then the US is not likely to impose sanctions…

>US sanctions exist to compell countries to make steps toward freedom

I think that argument depends on a fairly narrow, and largely private-property-centric model of "freedom".

I don't think it will be elections or free media that would unlock the Cuban embargo, but rather privatization.

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