COMMUNICATIONS-CUBA: Telephone Contact with US Suspended

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Feb 25 1999 (IPS) - Cuba partially cut off telephone communications with the United States Thursday, thus formalising a new conflict in the already tense relations between the two countries.

‘Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA’ (ETECSA), a joint venture of the Cuban state and investors from Italy, suspended telephone services with the United States provided by the U.S. firms ATT, MCI, LDDS, IDB and WILTEL, at 00:01 local time.

Service provided by the U.S. company Sprint and Puerto Rico’s TLDI were not cut off.

The ETECSA measure, which has the full support of the government of President Fidel Castro, was adopted because December payments amounting to around 19 million dollars had not been met, according to reports by the state-owned press.

The payments were temporarily frozen on the order of U.S. Judge James Lawrence King, who in 1997 authorised 187.6 million dollars in compensation to families of three of the four pilots of small airplanes shot down by the Cuban air force on Feb 24, 1996.

The families of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa and Mario de la Pena are trying to obtain the indemnification from Cuban state funds frozen by the Washington embargo against Cuba, which dates back to 1960, and from the money owed for telephone services.

The relatives of deceased pilot Pablo Morales are not included in the lawsuit because they are not U.S. citizens.

The small airplanes that were shot down had been chartered by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue, comprised of anti- Castro exiles. According to Havana, the planes had violated Cuban airspace.

A cover-page story in the Cuban government daily ‘Granma’, termed the freeze on payments an “open and blatant violation” of an agreement in effect between the U.S. and Cuban telecommunications companies since 1992.

The report adds that ATT, MCI, LDDS, IDB and WILTEL were unable, “in spite of their wishes,” to meet their obligations, as they were prohibited from doing so by King. At a Feb 16 hearing, the judge postponed a final verdict on the case.

Sprint and TLDI, which together operate 30 percent of all lines linking the two countries, had already settled their debts with Cuba when they received the legal distraint. They now have until Mar 30 to make their next payment.

ETECSA officials reiterated to IPS that the company’s aim was not to suppress telephone communications between families split between the United States and Cuba.

Studies conducted here estimate the number of Cubans residing in the United States at 1.2 million, 60 percent of whom live in southern Florida.

“My daughter usually calls me every Friday, and she told me to stay calm, because she would find the way to stay in touch,” said Maria Caridad Lopez, 55 – who admitted, however, that she was worried.

The 661212 phone number through which communication with the United States is solicited became increasingly congested Thursday, and a recording recommended that the caller hang up and wait a few minutes before making another attempt.

Data not confirmed by the Cuban government estimated the annual revenues received by Cuba from phone calls from and to the United States at 75 million dollars.

An additional 145 million dollars belonging to the Cuban state also remain frozen in U.S. banks on the orders of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in enforcement of the nearly four- decade blockade.

The Castro administration “deplored this new hostile step by the United States against Cuba which, in practice, suppresses one of the few exceptions to a policy of an absolute blockade that has reigned for 40 years,” said an official declaration.

Authorities described two new laws approved by parliament Tuesday as “just and necessary weapons.”

One of them, a law on the “protection of Cuba’s national independence and national economy,” stipulates stiff penalties for those who supply the U.S. government with information that can be used to “favour the embargo,” the “economic war against Cuba” or “subversion.”

Diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States have been cut off since Jan 3, 1960. On May 30, 1977, however, the two governments agreed to open interest sections in each other’s territory.