Category: Zunilda Mata

It is clear that the Technology Park was opened in haste and its first breakdowns are already visible. Tuesday, the simulators for flying, driving and shooting, installed by the Ministry of the Armed Forces (Minfar), were having software problems and were unusable, pending the necessary fixes.

The end-of-year school holidays have stimulated people’s interest in bringing their children to Hola Ola (Hello Wave) to better fill their time. One employee tried to give them hope, this Tuesday, in the face of the mishap that caused the breakdown. “The machines will be repaired very soon, but the FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces) will have to do it,” she explained.

The explanation did not seem to improve the mood of the frustrated visitors who demanded their time in at the controls or with the toy gun and, to ease the situation, the employee reminded them of the air conditioned room with video games. The line began to extend beyond the compound, where the use of a computer costs two Cuban pesos (CUP) an hour (about 8 cents US).

One mother with two small children waited her turn in the cafeteria. “No one can eat this croquette, it’s dry and they didn’t even use breadcrumbs to make it go down better,” the woman complained, having paid two Cuban pesos for the product.

Another of the services announced in the official press by Brigida Baeza is the rental of tablets, who use was intended to be free during the opening days until a reasonable fee was approved. But the option, for now, is not available to the public.

But the biggest attraction of the site, for the users of Hola Ola, is the wifi access area installed around the perimeter. The network, managed by the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (Etecsa), is also not working to its full capacity, because the antennas are not operational in the back, where the barbecue is located.

There is also no place on site to buy the Nauta cards needed to connect to the internet, which also limits the experience of would-be net surfers, a problem that will be solved “very soon,” according to several employees consulted by this newspaper.

“It’s the wifi area closest to me,” said Amarilys, a Havanan of 34 who lives in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood, although she complains that “the price to connect is still very high,” despite Etecsa’s recent drop from 2 Cuban Convertible pesos (CUC) an hour (roughly $2 US) to 1.50 CUC.

The infrastructure problems affecting Hola Ola also affected its bathrooms this Tuesday, which were flooded by a water leak. Nevertheless, the desire of many citizens to connect to the internet is huge and the web surfers didn’t let any of these inconveniences ruin the kilobyte party.

Cuba is one of the countries with the least internet connectivity in the world. In the last couple of years about 1,100 internet connection points have been enabled on the island, both in navigation rooms with computers provided, and in outdoor wifi zones, but many websites critical of the government remain censored and cannot be accessed from the island, the connection speed is low, and the service suffers from frequent outages.

Cuba is at the forefront of the list of countries with the least internet penetration in the Western hemisphere. An hour of navigation from a state-provided wifi zone costs the equivalent of two days pay for a professional, and is plagued by crashes, service faults, and hackers who wirelessly steal the balance on your internet card, as well as being subject to the physical theft of phones, laptops and tablets by thieves who haunt the wifi zones for this purpose.

“This agreement allows ETECSA to use our technology to reduce latency to locally deliver some of our most popular content and a higher bandwidth, for example YouTube videos,” Google said in a statement.

Once stored on servers within Cuba, that content will reach internet users up to 10 times faster, according to expert predictions. But the agreement does not affect the customers’ bandwidth or allow access to sites that the government of Raul Castro keeps under strict censorship.

Google has been exploring service on the island since 2014, when Schmidt visited Cuba along with other executives and interviewed journalists with 14ymedio, students at the University of Information Sciences in Havana, and Cuban officials. Shortly after that trip, the company opened its products to Cuban users on the island – who previously could not access them – including products such as Google Chrome, Google Play and Google Analytics.

The news of the agreement with the US company spread by word of mouth among Cubans and was presented in the official media as an achievement by the government “to improve the computerization of Cuban society,” but few spoke about the details.

“I hope that now the ability to surf the internet from cellphones is closer,” said Vosvel Camejo, a customer of the only telephone company allowed in the country, and for whom Google is the only entity that can save the country “from underdevelopment.”

The signing of the agreement comes a few weeks from Republican Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States, on 20 January 2017. President-elect Trump has been inconsistent in his position on the process of normalization of relations with the island, moved forward by his predecessor, Barack Obama. Google has rushed to sign the agreement, given the uncertainty presented by the tycoon’s arrival in the White House.

For the Government of Havana, the clock is ticking off certain emergencies in telecommunications. In February 2011, a fiber optic cable connecting the island to Venezuela reached land on Siboney Beach in eastern Cuba. This cable carries the major flow of data entering and leaving Cuba.

Access from home is only allowed for a very small group of officials, professionals with links to officialdom, and foreign residents of the island. “The ideal would be for this agreement to also bring internet to Cuban homes, so that the country can develop all the talent of its people,” says Camejo.

For now, the company, based in California, has committed to improve the browsing experience, a step that can be very important for the development of the independent sector that produces audiovisuals, and for the “YouTubers” who have begun to emerge in the country.

Independent organizations such as the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) frequently use video services to publish reports, interviews and images of repression in the east. With the new agreement, their presence and effectiveness on the web can grow significantly.

For the virtual offensive they have called on university students, members of the Young Communist Union, and teenagers in high school. The political battle on the network will be accompanied by activities and celebrations in dozens of parks and plazas throughout the country.

“I have to go, but variety is the spice of life; because I publish on Twitter they asked me to take advantage of it and connect with some friends on Facebook,” a student majoring in History at the University of Havana, who is participating in the digital offensive, told this newspaper.

The official press has called the day a “hornet’s nest” that is held under the slogan “My Cuba with rights.” The activities not only address the National Day for Human Rights, but also plan a tribute to “the chief defender of the humble, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz,” according to the announcement.

The activities planned for Saturday also include sports competitions, cultural shows, book sales and presentations of audiovisual materials. The sites chosen for the celebrations coincide in many cases with points where the opposition traditionally demonstrates during the Human Rights Day.

University Law Professor Luis Sola Vila spoke on the Legal segment of the morning news magazine, saying that “in our country the Universal Declaration of Human Rights went into effect with the triumph of the Revolution, undeniably.”

Sola Vila noted that Cuba is a signatory to several treaties, including those against torture, discrimination against women and racial discrimination, but omitted that the government of the island has not yet ratified the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Amid the intense ideological campaign on display in the official media for the occasion, conspicuously absent has been any reference to the rights of association or freedom of expression.

From the early morning hours several activists denounced police operations around their homes and warnings from State Security not to go out into the street. At dawn the headquarters of the Ladies in White in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton was surrounded by political police, according to a report from the dissident Angel Moya.

Officialdom expects to mark another ideological victory on this Human Rights Day, keeping the opposition forces under control, deploying an army of followers on the internet, and staging prepared celebrations in Cuban parks.

The closing of that stage, which was characterized by foreign investment from countries such as Mexico and Italy, was a symbolic slamming of the door in the same year that the Italian company Telecom sold its shares – 27% of the company – for 207 million dollars. With complete control of the country’s phone service, ETECSA began to dictate its operations.

Currrently, the monopoly manages all fixed and cellular phone service on the island, email communications and internet, and the distribution of recharge cards, the latter of which has improved in recent years with the licensing of private individuals to work as telecommunications agents.

Although in the last five years ETECSA has expanded from 350 to a little more that 600 base stations in the country and brought its signal to all the municipalities in the country, in web services and email ongoing problems generate constant complaints among users.

“I can only send or receive messages late at night, when there’s no one on-line,” protests Yohandri Rojas who lives in Santa Clara. The 29-year-old complains about the poor quality of the Nauta email service, which is managed from mobile phones. “It’s a disaster,” he says.

Rojas works with a friend in a small place that repairs mobile phones, and has extensive knowledge of computing and communications that he taught himself. “This is because of problems with the bandwidth on the data network,” he explained to 14ymedio. “What has happened is that ETECSA has not expanded its servers consistent with the growth in the number of users,” he emphasizes.

ETECSA refused to answer questions from this newspaper to explain the causes of the frequent crashes in service and the poor quality of its operation. “We are working on solving the problem,” an employee at the number to report problems curtly told this newspaper.

Services from email to cellphones have worsened in the past year. “They have sold more accounts than they can effectively manage,” says a telecommunications agent in the Regla district of Havana, who preferred to remain anonymous. “The service is disappointing and if another company emerges offering a different service, ETECSA is going to lose a lot of customers.”

In the middle of this year, Ministry of Communications authorities let it be known that there are 11.2 million temporary or permanent email accounts on mobile phones. Many of them are opened by tourists passing through the country, but at least half are regularly used by domestic customers.

Each megabyte downloaded or uploaded via email on Nauta mobile phone services costs one Cuban convertible peso, the daily wage of a professional. But because of the instability in connections, the same amount can cost three times as much, because interruptions cancel message transmissions over and over again.

The problems are worse during weeks when “bonus recharges” are offered, allowing the user to purchase a recharge amount on the internet with a bonus as a “gift” from the company. “During those days there is no way I can get into my Nauta email inbox,” explains Deyanira, a nurse who lives in Havana’s Cerro neighborhood.

“When they announce ‘double’ or ‘bonus’ recharges, I know I won’t be able to communicate with my family by email that week,” she explains. The young woman’s mother lives in Germany with her younger sister, and email via mobile phones is the quickest way to stay in touch. However, most of the time, “my messages remain in the outbox for hours or days, waiting for ETECSA to wake up,” she jokes.

Bandwidth problems on the cellular network affect more than just email services. Ernesto, a Valencian visiting Cuba for two weeks, complains that “the roaming service is very unstable, and sometimes there’s a signal and sometimes not.” At more than 5 euros for every megabyte sent, the tourist tried to use “Facebook and also Instagram, but with little success.”

In recent months, Cuba has signed agreements for roaming with several telephone companies in the US, most notably Verizon, Sprint and AT&T.

“If they continue to strain the network with users demanding data, but do not expand or update the infrastructure, it will collapse,” predicts Yohandri Rojas. “ETECSA is going to be like the hard currency stores that sell beer: high demand and low supply,” he scoffs.

“Luckily we had a bottle of rum left over from a party,” says Chicho, a retired teacher who has waited decades for this moment. “It is not that we’re celebrating the death of a human being, because this man made us all believe that he was not one… that he was above life and death,” he tells 14ymedio.

Chicho has a nine-year-old granddaughter who will go to school early this Monday, although there are doubts about how the week will go in schools and workplaces, in the midst of the national mourning that has been decreed for nine days. “I’m sure that they aren’t going to teach classes, there is going to be one event and another until the day the ashes reach the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery,” says the grandfather.

For Mileidis, a resident of Havana’s Regla neighborhood, there is another concern. “My brother is a son of Changó,” (an orisha of the Afro-Cuban religion who is the equivalent of Saint Barbara). The celebration of the saint is held every December 4, the same day the national mourning concludes. “I don’t know how we are going to get the brandy and rum,” the young woman worries.

The festivities on the eve of Saint Barbara are very popular on the island, fueled by drumbeats, Yoruba songs and a great deal of alcohol. With the sale of alcohol prohibited, many Santería rights are in danger of collapse. Distilled alcohol has doubled in price in barely three days of the “dry law.”

A well-known bar on Reina Street is deserted and the drinks list has been put away. Nearby, in El Curita park, three regulars of the place get together on a corner and pass a plastic container that looks like it contains cola. In reality it is distilled alcohol, better known as “train sparks” for the effects it occasions in the stomach when ingested.

Police patrol cars and uniformed officers approach, and the three men hide the bottle. “This is my thing, I can’t live without it,” says one of the men, justifying his transgression. “What fault is it of mine that He can no longer take a drink?” he reflects, slurring his words.

Posters with the face of Fidel Castro are everywhere. Since the celebration of his 90^th birthday in August, the tone of the personality cult has noticeably risen, such that Cubans seem to be used to Fidelmania.

“Will they change the bust of José Martí in the schools for one of Fidel?” a seven-year-old girl asks her mother. In the street, Havana residents speculate about the anticipated tributes to Castro and expect the establishment of an official order in his honor, his face on a banknote, a multi-story iron relief with his silhouette in the Plaza of the Revolution — like the ones for Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos – some street with his name, and a museum in his memory in the heart of the city.

The most daring even predict a change in the only political organization allowed in the country. “It’s a good moment to shake off the communist label,” an official academic who asked for anonymity told this newspaper. “It’s possible that at the next plenary session of the Cuban Communist Party or at an extraordinary congress they will re-baptize it the Fidelista Party.

In tune with popular predictions, the illegal lottery, known as la bolita, has seen an increase in bets on the numbers that mean ‘police,’ ‘great death,’ and ‘horse,’ the later for Fidel Castro’s nickname, “El Caballo.”

At the intersection of 19^th and B Streets, in the Vedado neighborhood, one market has earned the epithet of “the rich people’s market.” Some also call it “the museum,” because it’s “look but don’t touch,” due to its high prices. The place has a variety of products far beyond the average offered by markets across the island.

The capped process still have not yet reached these kinds of markets, where private producers sell their merchandise. A pound of boneless pork has varied between 40 and 50 Cuban pesos for months, two days’ salary for an engineer. “We sell the meat here depending on how it comes to us,” explains Yulian Sanchez, the market’s administrator.

Opinions among customers are divided on the government’s measure. “There’s no one here who eats beef or even cracklings,” an old woman complained this Tuesday at 19^th and B, while looking for oregano to cook some beans. “These prices are unthinkable for people,” she said, expressing her support for price caps on all the markets of this type.

Other customers fear a possible extension of price regulations. “What will happen is that the best things will disappear,” says Roberto, a self-employed workers who regularly buys fruit at 19^th and B. “The minute they capped prices, onion disappeared,” he said.

Among the foods with regular prices are also beans, taro, cassava, bananas, yucca, sweet potatoes, lettuce and pumpkin. In markets where price controls are already in place, products cannot be sold for more than the prices established in a resolution of the Ministry of Finance and Prices.

An army of inspectors verifies that the stands display the regulated prices and apply fines to offenders that can range from 100 to 700 Cuban pesos.

A few yards from Havana’s Capitol building, the Egido street market still displays prices based on supply and demand. Four tomatoes can cost 50 Cuban pesos, a third of the monthly pension of Oscar Villanueva, a retired construction worker looking over the market stalls on Tuesday.

“With Christmas and New Years it is normal to raise prices, but since these are already quite high, we have to prepare for the worst,” he says.

Anxiety in anticipation of these holidays is apparent among the stands of the central market. The government has informed the sellers that as of this coming January there will be a system of price regulation for several products.

“This is the only place where you can find a variety of fruit. If they cap the prices it will be like the others,” says Villanueva.

The quality of the products at the Youth Labor Army (EJT) market at 17^th and K, run by the Armed Forces, is very different from “the rich people’s market,” a distant relative of the Egido Street market.

Many consumers agree that price caps are often at odds with the quality of products. “The fruits they sell are always green and the root vegetables are covered with dirt,” says a regular customer of the market in Vedado. The woman recognizes, however, that the prices in other markets “can’t go on like this, because soon we’ll need a wheelbarrow full of money to buy food for a week.”

“Now they have one-thousand peso notes to fix that problem,” a nearby vendor jokes with the woman.

The hopes of many are pinned on the reopening of El Trigal market in January, the only agricultural wholesale market in al of Havana, which in the middle of this year was closed for “irregularities” in its operation. But it is still unknown if the government will maintain the price caps, sustain supplies in the market stalls, and improve the quality of the offerings.

The young man works in the private sector as a caregiver for the elderly. He considers that job opportunities through the agency could be “a way to erase prejudice.” He notes that he only works with families who share his beliefs because he feels “more respected.”

“Please, if you are not a witness, do not call to register (…), although we do not doubt that you are an honest person, we can not accept your registration,” clarify the managers of the employment exchange. The project is focused only on those who “find it very difficult to get work in these critical times.”

The Cuban government’s relationship with Jehovah’s Witnesses has been tense since the coming to power of Fidel Castro. Many were interned in the Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP) camps that operated on the island between 1965 and 1968 – along with other religious believers, homosexuals and political dissidents – while others were driven underground and into exile.

The official animosity continues today, but some years ago the authorities issued permits for the congregation’s meeting halls to open. “We are allowed to meet but there is no public recognition that we exist, that we are here and we are not criminals or bad people,” says the nurse.

The stigma is felt strongly in teaching and working life. “There is not a single Jehovah’s Witness who is the manager of a hotel, a hard-currency store manager or a state official,” says Mario Francisco. In his opinion, this group is still seen as “unreliable” for certain positions.

The latest report on Religious Freedom in the World (2014), released by the United States Department of State, reveals that the Cuban authorities continue to monitor the activities of religious groups on the island. Among the hardest hit are the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Although the Constitution, in force on the island since 1976, enacts that “the State recognizes, respects and guarantees religious freedom,” the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party staunchly monitors construction permits for new houses of worship.

Excessive controls have strengthened the informal networks that serve the Witnesses to spread their beliefs from door to door, to help each other in case of need and to warn each other of dangers. They have now extended these networks to the job search.

Through a phone call, a text message or an e-mail sent to the organizers of the new employment agency, applicants submit their professional skills and contact details. The project has two databases, one public and one private.

The public information can be read on classified site such as Revolico and others circulate in the Weekly Packet. There are more than twenty occupations included and they include everything from plumbing to cooking, cleaning, medicine and jewelry making.

“Often someone would ask us for a serious, honest and responsible worker for a job and we didn’t have ways to identify the brother who would be ideal for the position,” the promoters explain. The list will favor those who until now have been adversely affected by prejudice.

“The witnesses who are contacted for a possible job will be duly questioned about their beliefs and their faithfulness in the service of the Lord,” they clarify. A test that Mario Francisco deems necessary. “When people ask me for my religious beliefs, it is usually to not give me the job… but in this case I will answer the question without fear.”

La Chopi, which is currently distributed free of charge through the Weekly Packet and can also be downloaded from its own website, has built on the experience of other classified sites such as Revolico, which help Cubans in the difficult task of acquiring scarce merchandise, goods that are banned or that aren’t sold in its retail network.

La Chopi’s offerings are some of the most diverse. Unlocked iPhones, masseuses who promise to “relieve stress and recharge your batteries for a hard day’s work,” and from wholesale acrylic nails, to products that have never been marketed in state networks, such as satellite dishes, visas to several Central American countries and Dalmatian puppies.

The application is like a show that goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, covering incunabula two centuries old or drugs to “strengthen muscles,” one more display of the consumer appetite that runs through Cuban society and their desire for the free market.

Most of the information contained in this unique online store comes from the digital site BacheCubano.com, but it also supports ads that come from users via email or text-only messages (SMS). The objective of its lead programmer, Ernesto Redonet has been “facilitating sales and the promotion of services in Cuba.”

In version 1.9, La Chopi also offers the ability for users to pay for placing advertising for their business or product, whether on the start screen of the application, in one of the categories of offerings, or as a featured ad. This is a trend followed, with fewer and fewer limitations, by classified sites and apps developed on the island.

“We’ve gone from being afraid of advertising, to everyone wanting to advertise,” says Yusiel Ruiz, a self-taught apps developer for Android who has worked on several projects in the Cuban market. “Cellphones are the technology of the moment, so we focus more on products for phones than for computers,” he says.

In the private audiovisual content market Copy Pack, in Central Havana, users acquire the popular collection of movies, telenovelas, shows and documentaries known as the Weekly Packet. In the packet there is a file that also contains the latest cellphone apps appearing in the market. “La Chopi is really popular,” one of the employees tells 14ymedio.

“Competition is strong because there are a lot of apps with classified ads and promotions for services, but the only ones that will survive will be those offering the most information and the most attractive design,” speculates Yasiel Ruiz, who is working on an app right now for blind dates that will use text messaging to connect possible partners.

With the advent of new technologies, the black market has gone from being a network where trust between buyer and seller was essential to one that is more public and easygoing, like Craigslist. The state has also wanted to participate in this battle for advertising, staring with the publication of a tabloid called “Offerings,” but independent digital sites are still preferred.

La Chopi also reinforces the trend of apps developed by residents of the island, particularly focusing on ones that work off-line, given the difficulty in connecting to the internet. It’s enough to copy the new database every week, also distributed in the Weekly Packet, for the user to get the latest ads.

“The future belongs entirely to the apps,” says Ruiz convinced that the advent of tools like La Chopi “make life easier for everyone.”

Three years ago, when it was converted into a non-agricultural cooperative and received bank credits equivalent to one million CUPs, it began to climb out of that hole. Most of the money was invested in refrigeration equipment, furniture and restoring the premises. In addition, the members of the cooperative worked to form a unique opportunity to try to recover the singular menu and the lost prestige.

The centrally located establishment is one of the 189 dining cooperatives that have been approved in recent years in Cuba. At least 80 of them are already operating and the rest are in the midst of making repairs and applying for credit before opening to the public.

“This place has changed, there was a time when it was in trouble and had a very limited menu,” says Ramon, 72, a neighbor of Casa Potín. The retired engineer is a self-confessed “devoted customer” of the place, which he has seen transformed from “disaster to glory.” However, he believes that the prices “are not within the reach of many pockets and continue to be high.”

“When we took over the management of this restaurant through this new method [government permission for non-agricultural cooperatives], the place had been closed for months because the previous management had accumulated a debt of half a million [Cuban] pesos and we had to assume that,” said a member of the cooperative who requested anonymity. The woman is optimistic and added, “If everything continues as it is now, we will pay off the debt at the end of this year.”

The reason for the large amounts of imported products consumed in the restaurant is the absence of a wholesale market where the products can be bought, according to Casa Potín’s managers. “We were very excited when the Zona+ wholesale market [owned by Cimex, a government entity] opened in Miramar, but in reality there is no difference between the costs of buying there and at the other market,” said a waitress at the restaurant.

The legislation allows this state entity to raise the prices of some products sold in the dining network cooperatives, a sword of Damocles under which they must work. Similar measures applied to the agricultural markets and private transport have contributed to shortages and loss of quality in goods and services.

“We have had problems the whole summer with supplies from the Beverages and Soft Drinks Company,” says one of the cooperative’s employees, “so we can’t guarantee a stable supply of domestic beers or malts.”

Cooperatives have the prerogative to import equipment for commercial purposes through the Cimex Corporation, something that is still closed to self-employed workers.

Not only is it an uphill battle for the managers of Casa Potín to get basic supplies. Of the 18 initial workers who initially became part of the cooperative, only three remain at the forefront of the management of the restaurant-bar.

“People think that this is something where you don’t work very much and earn a lot, but that is not the case, we sweat it every day, making the numbers at the end of the month is not easy,” adds the employee, who acknowledges that when the place was managed by the state many products from the warehouse “were lost” and “there was a lot of diversion of resources.*”

The transformation into a cooperative has not changed the ownership of the property which remains with the state and each month the Havana Restaurants Company charges about 13,000 Cuban pesos (CUP) for rent. “It’s hard, very hard, but we have more autonomy and many customers are returning to Casa Potín.”

*Translator’s note: “Diversion of resources” is an all-encompassing term used in Cuba for what is generally theft by employees.

The two young men have designed versions with similar characteristics for other provinces, but the capital city is where they have the most complete inventory of restaurants, scenic places, clubs, cafes and homes for rent. “In the future we want to offer new services,” says Cabrera Casas, but they prefer to move forward in careful steps and consolidate what has been achieved.

The tool can be used without an internet connection, a trait shared by many of the apps created on the island. Some of them were demonstrated and exchanged during the first meeting of the Cuban Android Community, which was held last Saturday at the studio of the artist Alexis Leyva (Kcho), under the slogan “For a technological culture available to all.”

The creation of these two camagüeyanos is “useful for visitors to the island,” they explain and they say they have focused “on the private sector from the beginning.” The app only provides “information on places that offer different services, but doesn’t include prices or ratings, so users have the freedom to choose,” says one of the creators.

The long-held dream of the student was taking shape in Cabrera Casas’ mind and when he graduated he made the decision. “If it doesn’t exist, we’re going to do it,” and he turned his hand to the work with an obsession that knows no bounds.

Totally free, the developers are careful not to include any license or restriction that would impede the massive use of Conoce Cuba.

To distribute it, they based their strategy on visiting cellphone repairers and developed an advantageous collaboration with their owners. At first, they walked around the city knocking on doors of the self-employed to offer their product.

The proprietor of the Ultracell workshop in Havana was one of the many who learned of the existence of Conoce Cuba on the street. After offering the tool as a part of the installation package he loads on the phones that come his way, he believes it has increased his numbers of clients and their satisfaction.

Currently the two engineers have also developed a way for business owners to contact them via email so they can request changes and updates in the tab associated with their business.

They acknowledge, however, they have had to overcome many obstacles to pursue their dream. Technological limitations hinder any work of this kind, but above all they are held back by the restricted internet access afflicting the country.

Cuba is one of the nations with the lowest rate of connectivity in the world, with only 5% of the population on-line, a percentage that is reduced to 1% in the case of broadband.

During the first months of work, the young engineers relied on the internet rooms operated by the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA), or on friends who copied for them “some tools” they didn’t have, said Cabrera Casas.

Today, competitors abound, such as the app Isladentro (Island Within) one of the most popular in Cuba. This tool also offers a guide for travelers, is available for free, and in addition it not only shows private services, but also state services and is organized by province.

“That people can find a great deal of information no further away than their pocket” was the objective guiding the two engineers who created Conoce Cuba, and so far they seem to have succeeded.