Meet the Cubans Who Find Connection in Havana's Wi-Fi Parks
“News reporting problems of unrest in Venezuela is fake news,” announced the Cuban TV anchor as I drank my guava juice, mentally reviewing all the images of Venezuelan protesters I had seen. In Cuba, news is state-controlled and internet access is scarce, with wi-fi available almost exclusively in public spaces like parks. When I visited the island earlier this month, I wanted to understand how citizens communicated with and got news about the outside world.
Before 2014, some workplaces in Cuba had internet (for example, universities), but it was not available in homes. That year, Raúl Castro declared his support for the “public and social” use of the internet, and the country opened an initial 237 paid wi-fi hotspots in public spaces like parks. The Castro government has since expanded the number of hotspots, but an hour of wi-fi costs 1.5 CUC (about $2), which is a significant amount in comparison to the average Cuban salary.