A group of academics, artists and journalists publish a letter of “support and solidarity” with the students protesting huge price increases for internet and telephone service
14ymedio, Havana, 7 June 72025 — After a “process of deep reflection,” the students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Havana – the elite of the “army of white coats” that Fidel Castro considered unconditional defenders of the Revolution – have also joined the virtual protests against the rate increases, known as ‘el tarifazo‘ [huge rate hike], announced by Etecsa, the country’s communications monopoly. The Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) of that institution reiterated, in a cautionary statement, its “firm position” against the decision of the telecommunications monopoly on prices.
The letter, spread on social networks, is a reaction to the meeting held between the FEU and the authorities of Etecsa last Thursday, in which representatives of the students proposed changes such as facilitating the creation of “new national technology companies or associated MSMEs,” to enable cash payment in both pesos and dollars, to reduce the dependence on digital platforms such as Transfermobile and to “promote agreements with countries such as China or Russia to obtain financing and improve the technological infrastructure.” However, the answers given by the authorities were, it says, “insufficient and evasive.”
Raising the tone, the medical students reproached Etecsa for ignoring “the structural needs of millions” and proposing minimal solutions that do not solve the main problem. “We do not accept that a part of the student population should be privileged while workers, scientists, teachers, the elderly and our own families are excluded.”
They also pointed to the FEU administrative authority in the University, from which they expected the “leadership,” “accompaniment” and “support” that “never arrived.” “The absence of our superiors at decisive moments was not only strategic, it was symbolic: an expression of the abandonment that we are no longer willing to tolerate,” says the document in which, a few paragraphs later, the FEU of the faculty breaks with the administration: “They don’t represent us!”
After ensuring that they will not admit “empty structures or disconnected hierarchies,” the students called on other university faculties of the Island to join in the student demands
After assuring that they will not admit “empty structures or disconnected hierarchies”, the students called on other university faculties of the Island to join in the student demands. “We are not alone. We join the wave of courageous announcements from sister faculties (…). There can be no development without connectivity. There can be no revolutionary morality without the right to criticism. There can be no justice if the majority is sacrificed in favor of a few.”
Similar notes of “rejection” and “disagreement” with the measures of Etecsa have been published by students from other careers, such as Tourism in Havana in recent days. There have also been videos of young people holding meetings with authorities in which they question the decisions of a system that “does not solve” problems and that, despite the daily crises, “takes away what allowed us to escape from reality.”
Etecsa’s policies, which they accuse of violating the contract that obliges the company to notify the population of any change in its services one month in advance, “is not a mistake, it is a pattern,” continues one of the students in these meetings. “How often are decisions taken that affect millions without consulting us? (…) We are taught to resist, but that is not synonymous with submission,” they say.
There is also a message circulating on social networks and WhatsApp groups of dubious origin calling for a “mobilization” of students to hold sit-ins in front of universities and marches on campuses. This text has been denounced as false by the activist Yamilka Lafita, who said that this type of communication ends up “tarnishing and delegitimizing the civic, critical and honest work being done by students from various faculties in the country.”
“This type of content, manufactured by interests outside the student body, only serves to divide, confuse and stop the conscious awakening of those who, from the classrooms, are demanding rights, dignity and real participation,” she highlighted on her Facebook page, which she manages under the name of Lara Crofs.
Other sections of the population have also expressed their discontent and supported the students’ demands. This is the case of a group of academics and intellectuals who have written a letter in “support and solidarity with the students of the Island, calling on the international community to defend the students and teachers from reprisals that they are suffering for making their claims public.”
Other sectors of the population have also expressed their discontent and supported the students’ claims
“For the first time in decades, the Cuban student community, honoring old republican traditions of participation in political and social affairs, has raised its voice in the face of this outrage, even calling for a national university strike,” says the text, adding: “It has become a target of the repressive machinery of the regime, which has already launched an information manipulation campaign, because it hopes that a similar persecution will be unleashed against them as was used against the protesters of July 2021.” At the bottom of the statement, dozens of activists, artists and intellectuals have left their signatures.
The citizen platform Archipelago has also put in writing its “admiration” for the university students, who have decided not only to protest but have called for a student strike. “Who said the young people were lost? You are the protagonists of a unique moment, and you are regaining the hopes of millions. You are making history,” it published, thanking the young people for showing that “Cuba is alive.”.
Despite the unprecedented mobilization that the country is experiencing against a decision taken by the regime, the authorities have made it clear that they will not back down, arguing that Etecsa needs currency to guarantee its services and that there is no other option.
Last Thursday, the law students at Holguín University went one step further and filed a lawsuit against the telecommunications monopoly that probably no court will admit. The students questioned the ’tarifazo’ on mobile and data services, describing it as “exclusive, classist and contrary to the law,” supporting their claim in the Constitution and the Penal Code.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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