4 ms·

Posting this because there were many reports of Internet disruptions in Cuba and HN likes stuff about underwater cables. What many may not know is that there's

Posting this because there were many reports of Internet disruptions in Cuba and HN likes stuff about underwater cables. What many may not know is that there's one major high speed link to the world through ALBA-1. This article is about the ARCOS-1 cable network in the Carribean. An extension was supposed to be added to Cuba but mysteriously was dropped around the last US presidential election. As far as I can tell this is the only recentish article about the application being withdrawn. I'm not looking to fuel partisan strife, I genuinely want to shine light on this and hope some of the HN community might know more of the story.

MomoXenosaga 5y ago
There is no partisan strife Biden and the Democratic party are silent on Cuba. But dig a little more and their stance is the same as the GOP.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Pretty sure you're right. Mccarthysm ended decades ago, but its effects are still there. We probably need to evolve for some time (centuries?) before a politician can openly speak about anything related to communism without being labeled as the devil and see their career destroyed in seconds.
  - nerdponx 5y ago
    As far as I'm aware, Communism was a "dirty word" since the Russian revolution. The obvious conspiracy theory is that those in the halls of power embarked (successfully) on a multi-decade project to suppress and discredit Communism as an acceptable political belief.
- njjnvc 5y ago
  No, many in the GOP still agree with wetfoot/dryfoot due to the ongoing historical legacy of the failure of JFK at the Bay of Pigs. Rhetorically, to pick a couple of examples, Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio correctly have identified the Communist regime as the cause of the unrest in Cuba. And if the age of postmodernism has taught us anything it's that rhetoric matters. AOC, self professed "trained Marxist" Patrisse Cullors, and many Democrats, instead blame all the problems in Cuba on the US embargo and forgive the regime for its many crimes, and BLM put out a statement of support for the regime. The GOP isn't unified but at least some of them seem to understand the reality of the regime there and aren't eager to kowtow because the regime claims to have universal education and healthcare.
  - nerdponx 5y ago
    We don't have comparable embargoes on nation-states whose governments have committed much more heinous crimes. Like with sanctions in the Middle East, it just hurts regular people and the government continues to not care.
teh_klev 5y ago
Could do with 2020 appended to the title.
yyyk 5y ago
> Posting this because there were many reports of Internet disruptions in Cuba and HN likes stuff about underwater cables. An unbuilt cable is unlikely to be related to current disruptions. It's much more likely the regime is using disruptions as an anti-protest tactic against the recent protests.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  On the subject of anti-protest tactics, I was a little surprised to see BLM come out so openly in favor of the regime that was repressing protests and criticism of the government via police brutality. I would have thought Cuba would be a slam dunk for them.
  - yardie 5y ago
    Do you have a post of this? Last I look BLM, mistakenly, believes the protests are about the embargo. I haven't seen anything from them supporting or criticizing the regime.
    - throwaway894345 5y ago
      Their social media post[0] blaming the embargo is parroting the Cuban Dictatorship’s response, and the post itself refers to the embargo as “undermining the rights of the Cuban people to choose their own government” which IMO strongly implies that the Dictatorship is the rightful government of the Cuban people. This seems like pretty clear support of the Cuban Dictatorship to me. Note that, like other communist countries, Cuba hasn’t had free elections since the Communist Party took over. So the “US undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government” would be an absurd error—it’s very, very hard to believe BLM doesn’t know this and accidentally stumbled into rote Communist rhetoric. Similarly, it’s pretty hard to believe that the they think the US embargo is responsible for the disconnection of Internet, the police brutality toward protesters, etc or other overtly authoritarian facets of the protests. Nor the lack of medicine or food considering the embargo specifically allows those items, but Cuban policy effectively prevents Cubans from accessing those items (the government fears that it’s citizens might become sympathetic to US interests if the US is the one feeding and treating its population). Again, these are people who see “authoritarianism” in every aspect of US government and culture, and they accidentally overlooked it in Cuba? [0]: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRU5kYYp-UU/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CRU5kYYp-UU/

MomoXenosaga 5y ago

There is no partisan strife Biden and the Democratic party are silent on Cuba. But dig a little more and their stance is the same as the GOP.

squarefoot 5y ago
Pretty sure you're right. Mccarthysm ended decades ago, but its effects are still there. We probably need to evolve for some time (centuries?) before a politician can openly speak about anything related to communism without being labeled as the devil and see their career destroyed in seconds.
- nerdponx 5y ago
  As far as I'm aware, Communism was a "dirty word" since the Russian revolution. The obvious conspiracy theory is that those in the halls of power embarked (successfully) on a multi-decade project to suppress and discredit Communism as an acceptable political belief.
njjnvc 5y ago
No, many in the GOP still agree with wetfoot/dryfoot due to the ongoing historical legacy of the failure of JFK at the Bay of Pigs. Rhetorically, to pick a couple of examples, Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio correctly have identified the Communist regime as the cause of the unrest in Cuba. And if the age of postmodernism has taught us anything it's that rhetoric matters. AOC, self professed "trained Marxist" Patrisse Cullors, and many Democrats, instead blame all the problems in Cuba on the US embargo and forgive the regime for its many crimes, and BLM put out a statement of support for the regime. The GOP isn't unified but at least some of them seem to understand the reality of the regime there and aren't eager to kowtow because the regime claims to have universal education and healthcare.
- nerdponx 5y ago
  We don't have comparable embargoes on nation-states whose governments have committed much more heinous crimes. Like with sanctions in the Middle East, it just hurts regular people and the government continues to not care.

teh_klev 5y ago

Could do with 2020 appended to the title.

yyyk 5y ago

> Posting this because there were many reports of Internet disruptions in Cuba and HN likes stuff about underwater cables. An unbuilt cable is unlikely to be related to current disruptions. It's much more likely the regime is using disruptions as an anti-protest tactic against the recent protests.

throwaway894345 5y ago
On the subject of anti-protest tactics, I was a little surprised to see BLM come out so openly in favor of the regime that was repressing protests and criticism of the government via police brutality. I would have thought Cuba would be a slam dunk for them.
- yardie 5y ago
  Do you have a post of this? Last I look BLM, mistakenly, believes the protests are about the embargo. I haven't seen anything from them supporting or criticizing the regime.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    Their social media post[0] blaming the embargo is parroting the Cuban Dictatorship’s response, and the post itself refers to the embargo as “undermining the rights of the Cuban people to choose their own government” which IMO strongly implies that the Dictatorship is the rightful government of the Cuban people. This seems like pretty clear support of the Cuban Dictatorship to me. Note that, like other communist countries, Cuba hasn’t had free elections since the Communist Party took over. So the “US undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government” would be an absurd error—it’s very, very hard to believe BLM doesn’t know this and accidentally stumbled into rote Communist rhetoric. Similarly, it’s pretty hard to believe that the they think the US embargo is responsible for the disconnection of Internet, the police brutality toward protesters, etc or other overtly authoritarian facets of the protests. Nor the lack of medicine or food considering the embargo specifically allows those items, but Cuban policy effectively prevents Cubans from accessing those items (the government fears that it’s citizens might become sympathetic to US interests if the US is the one feeding and treating its population). Again, these are people who see “authoritarianism” in every aspect of US government and culture, and they accidentally overlooked it in Cuba? [0]: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRU5kYYp-UU/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CRU5kYYp-UU/