Latest news with #AlexandreMeneghini
The Star
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Cuba partially rolls back internet rate hike as anger grows
FILE PHOTO: People wait in line to enter an Etecsa store, the Cuban state company that provides telephone and communications services, Havana, Cuba, February 9, 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Photo HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuba said it would begin to offer additional mobile internet data plans at a sharply reduced price for students after an initial rate hike prompted outrage across an island already reeling from soaring inflation and shortages of basic goods. State-run telecommunications firm ETECSA last week capped subsidized data plans - offered at a steeply discounted rate of 360 pesos (just under $1 on the informal market exchange) - at 6 gigabytes, less than a third of the global average monthly usage per smartphone of 21.6 gigabytes, according to Swedish telecoms company Ericsson. After that, newly announced prices for an additional three gigabytes soar to 3,360 pesos ($9), over half the average monthly wage of 5,839 pesos ($16). Many plans are offered only in dollars - a currency out of reach for many Cubans - in a bid to tap the funds of relatives who have migrated abroad and wish to communicate with their families. The rate hike struck a nerve with many Cubans - for whom the new data packages are inaccessible - prompting ETECSA on Monday evening to offer students an additional 6 gigabytes, for a total of 12, at the same discounted rate of 360 pesos ($1), easing tensions - but leaving many still in the lurch. Andrea Curbelo, a 20-year-old art history student at the University of Havana said the additional discounted data package for students was appreciated but said all Cubans should be treated equal. "All Cubans should have the same opportunity as we students to communicate with their families ... they should restructure the measure so that everyone has the same rights." The continuing rift over the price of data plans in Cuba comes as the nation's communist-run government scrambles to raise funds amid the worst economic crisis to hit the island since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. The government says the rate hikes are necessary to update ailing telecommunications infrastructure in a country with some of the slowest internet connection speeds in the world, according to an online service that measures bandwidth. Danila Maria Hernandez, a 19-year-old Havana resident, said the government had struck a nerve raising prices amid the ongoing economic crisis. "All we have left to distract ourselves is social media, a little internet, to get our minds off our problems," she said. "It's just not right." (Reporting by Nelson Acosta; additional reporting by Alien Fernandez, Anett Rios and Dave Sherwood; Editing by Alistair Bell)
The Star
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
US top diplomat in Havana promises more sanctions on Cuba
FILE PHOTO: A view of a street in downtown Havana, Cuba, December 19, 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Photo HAVANA (Reuters) -The United States' top diplomat in Havana said on Friday the U.S. had more sanctions in store for Cuba just days after punishing several Cuban judicial officials for their roles in jailing political dissidents on the island. Three Cuban judges and a prosecutor were forbidden from entering the United States on Wednesday, the latest sanctions from the Trump administration, which earlier declared a tough new policy on Cuba. "The sanctions announced this Wednesday were just the beginning," U.S. Embassy chief of mission Mike Hammer told reporters in Miami. "This administration is determined to sanction repressors. There will be consequences for their actions." U.S. President Donald Trump has already doubled down on sanctions since taking office in January, returning longtime foe Cuba to a U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, tightening rules on remittances and shutting off Biden-era migration programs. The 61-year-old Hammer, a career U.S. diplomat who arrived in Cuba just six months ago, has kept a busy schedule, wandering the country widely as he talks with dissidents, small business owners and Cubans of all walks of life. In videos produced by the U.S. embassy and shared on social media, Hammer, fluent in Spanish, plays dominoes with a group of children in Camaguey, visits the tomb of Cuban hero Jose Marti in Santiago and speaks with family members of jailed dissidents in homes throughout Cuba. His travels come as Cubans confront the worst economic downturn in decades, a growing crisis the Cuban government blames on the Cold War-era U.S. embargo, a web of restrictions that complicates financial transactions, trade and tourism. Hammer told reporters on Friday that those Cubans he had spoken with in his travels disagreed that the U.S. was to blame. "The people recognize that those responsible are the Cuban regime, it has nothing to do with any policy of the United States." His travels and assertions have infuriated the Cuban government, which accuses Hammer of seeking to stir up resentment in a bid to overthrow the island's communist leadership. But Cuba has not impeded Hammer's travels, despite issuing a recent warning in state-run media that its "patience has limits." Hammer told reporters he would continue his work on the island. "What are they scared of? I'm just a simple chief of mission talking with the people," he said. (Reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
