The State calls for severe penalties for vandals and punishment for citizens who do not report them
14ymedio, Havana, November 2, 2024 — The official press called this Saturday for “strong measures” against the protagonists of “more than 30 acts of vandalism so far this year” at the Etecsa facilities in Santiago de Cuba. The telephone monopoly on the Island has not been the only state entity with “serious effects.” As Sierra Maestra admits, an “unidentified “vital economic center,” an unidentified military unit and the Renté thermoelectric plant have also been left “without communication.”
Sierra Maestra urges the police, at the request of the manager of
Etecsa in Santiago, Eolydis Montejo, to take action in the matter, not only against the “vandals” but against the citizens, “who sometimes witness indisciplines of this nature and do not report them.” Montejo washed his hands of the connection problems in the province, saying that these facts prevent the population from “enjoying” the internet, because each breakdown delays the restoration, and there is no money for the “replacement of the damaged technology.”
The José Martí neighborhood has the highest number of incidents. The most frequent crimes are the theft of fiber optic and copper cables, attacks against technology equipment and cell phone radio bases, and “battery theft.” According to Montejo, after each reported event, landline telephones, cell phones and Nauta Hogar home internet service were affected.
“Saturation levels increase, because when there is an affectation in the radio base, it is reflected in the coverage,” added the official, for whom all the deficiencies of his company have their explanation in “crime.” “Cutting cables, for example, can leave many people incommunicado in emergency situations. The lack of access to telecommunications services due to vandalism limits the development of the country and affects all its spheres,” he said.
“The lack of access to telecommunications services due to vandalism limits the development of the country and affects all its spheres”
The Communist Party newspaper in Santiago qualifies Montejo’s statements, recognizing that “Etecsa does not escape the limitations of resources to install new services,” but it does attribute a significant percentage of the failures to attacks, which have reached 10 more than in 2023.
The most recent, it reported, occurred at the cell phone radio base of San Agustín, a rural community located on the Mar Verde road. It is a “remote area” that barely has connection, so the whole town was left without internet after the crime.
The “cooperation” agreements with the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and the “night tours on non-working days” in each of the facilities in the province have been of no use. The offices are “dispersed” throughout the territory, and it is difficult to maintain effective surveillance.
“Not all the events occurred in rural communities. Most have occurred in populated areas, where there are nearby homes and work centers,” said the manager, who quoted the provincial prosecutor, Rolando Reyes, about punishments for “acts against telephony.” “They must be charged with the precautionary measure of provisional detention,” he said, “and receive a severe penalty in correspondence with the damage they have caused.”
“We are talking, for example, about a theft. The penalty can be from two years upwards, depending on the aggravation charge”
“We are talking, for example, about a theft. The penalty can be from two years upwards, depending on the aggravation charge, and up to 30 years of deprivation of liberty if it is a robbery with violence or with force. Imagine the magnitude of cutting the optical fiber,” he said. In addition, there are penalties for co-conspirators, since these are crimes that “are not committed alone.”
Montejo also asked for severe punishments for those who “receive” a cable or a stolen piece of equipment. “The self-employed worker who acquires that cable and then sells it in his establishment is receiving stolen property, and the law will impose a penalty in correspondence with his participation.
The manager did not reveal what the “vandals” were looking for in an Eastern Army unit or how they managed to circumvent the surveillance of the soldiers to carry out the theft. Nor did he give details about the impact suffered by the Renté thermoelectric plant or what the relationship of these crimes is to the popular discontent of Cubans, fueled by the total blackout of October 17.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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