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Comment by joshuaheard | Hacker News Reader

The author fails to mention that the reason the internet is not available to most people in Cuba is because private internet access is illegal in Cuba. The public internet (internet cafes, etc.), including social media, is monitored by the Cuban secret police. Political dissenters, or anyone criticizing the Castros or their cronies, are harshly punished, usually without a trial. Censorship is strict. So, good luck with it, Netflix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba

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By gum! Still with that story about the Cuban secret police in 2016...

I'm Cuban and I'm now in Cuba, university professor, not affiliated to any political organization, and I check HN almost all days and personally I do not feel limited in any way, only by its high cost. In the same way private internet access is not illegal, is just nonexistent as option because most Cubans cannot afford the current costs of Internet infrastructure at home.

Would love to hear more!

The math is simple, the Cuban average salary is around $20/month, current public internet rate is $2/hour. So, at least you receive an extra money, either from a family remittance, personal business or in my case from working as a freelance (BTW using Internet), you can't pay for much access time.

Is the story that the "Committee for the Defense of the Revolution" is on every block in every city not real?

(Honest question: When I was there this seemed to be a thing?)

"Secret police" may have been the wrong term. The point is that the society is closely monitored by the authoritarian government and there is "widespread abuses of political rights and civil liberties". You and the author seem to imply that the problem is they need to lay more pipe, when the real problem is the authoritarian government is forbidding internet access in order prevent an Arab Spring in their country. This is a perfect example of why Obama's Cuba policy is such a fail. He could have easily negotiated freer internet access in exchange for U.S. trade agreements, but he did not, and the Cuban people are suffering as a result.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba#Contempor...

Given that freer internet access could be highly politically destabilising for the current regime I seriously doubt that Obama could "have easily negotiated freer internet access". The opposite would seem far more likely.

The Cuban people were already suffering - the US' new policy can start to change that. Nothing else will.

What is a "secret police?" Doesn't the USA have "Secret Police" (NSA) monitoring web traffic for things they don't like ("threats to national security")?

No, we're enlightened here in the USA. Our police don't do anything secret; they drag you out in front of the World and sack your house.

It's true our police may imprison over 2 million people, but they are very careful to make sure it's only bad people, so there's no threat to liberty.

Yeah, I think we shouldn't forget that dictatorship is not a cute thing.

We also shouldn't forget that a dictatorship doesn't imply a regressive and authoritarian (in daily life) government. See Singapore, for instance, which is effectively a single-party state but helped to install gigabit internet access for residents.

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