CUBA-US: War of the Airwaves

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jul 27 2004 (IPS) - The long history of broadcasting clashes between Cuba and the United States has entered a new chapter with the White House granting fresh funds to Radio and TV Martí, stations created by the U.S. government to broadcast anti-Castro programming from U.S. territory.

As part of a package of measures put into effect on Jun. 30 by the administration of George W. Bush, 18 million dollars were earmarked to help transmissions from the two stations overcome jamming by Havana.

The Cuban people are expectant following announcements that Washington would be once again tackling this old challenge.

"I suppose there must be very strong interference with Radio Martí now because I can almost never hear it, and nor can my neighbours," said Juana González, a 62 year-old resident of an outlying Havana neighbourhood.

The government of Fidel Castro complained about the airwaves "aggression" of the United States and the new White House provisions, which were announced in early May, at the annual council meeting of the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which forms part of the U.N. system.

A few days later, Cuban Deputy Minister of Information Technology and Communications Ramón Linares said the U.S. decision "violates the founding principles of the ITU charter."

Linares said at present "more than 2,220 hours of subversive programming" is transmitted to Cuba, "sponsored, approved and executed by the United States government."

According to official sources in Cuba, Washington has spent 500 million dollars on TV and Radio Martí since 1985.

C-130 aircraft, like the one that Washington plans to use now to help TV Martí programming break through jamming by Cuba, were previously used in military attacks on Grenada, Panama, Haiti and Yugoslavia, and in the 1991 and 2003 wars on Iraq.

The Cuban government says U.S. military aircraft have flown west of the southeastern U.S. state of Florida, some 180 km north of Cuba’s western provinces, at heights of 5,600 metres, with the aim of causing damage to the Cuban national TV broadcasting system.

The news and musical programming from anti-Castro private radio broadcasters that has reached Cuba for four decades has an avid audience here.

Havana maintains that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) promoted the launch of Radio Swan, which began broadcasting from the Caribbean sea in the 1960s against Castro’s newly formed government, in a period when it was forging strong new ties with the east European socialist bloc following the Jan. 1, 1959 triumph of the revolution.

The U.S. national radio station Voice of America has also aired reports criticising the socio-political changes and policies of Cuba’s socialist government since about the same time.

In this war of the airways, it is Radio and TV Martí that especially irritate the Castro government, partly because they carry the name of the Cuban national hero José Martí and also due to the fact that they are funded by the government.

Radio Martí first went on the air on May 20, 1985, as the Cuban service of the Voice of America, which answers to the United States Information Agency – the institution dealing with broadcasts overseas.

Cuban authorities have accused Radio Martí of deliberately spreading rumours to cause internal tension in Cuba.

In 1994, for instance, the station was blamed for starting the rumour that a ship would be leaving Havana port for Miami, Florida. A huge number of people turned out and subsequent anti-government disturbances on Aug. 5 of that year ended with Castro personally announcing that anyone who wished to leave the island was free to do so.

The most recent incident took place in early 2002, when the authorities cleared out the Mexican Embassy in Havana after a crowd of young Cubans forced their way in hoping to leave the country without the necessary authorisation from the socialist government.

The official version printed in the Cuban state daily Granma said an incident occurred at the Mexican Embassy when a group of "lumpen and anti-social elements" broke in due to stories aired by Radio Martí.

In a misleading manner, according to Granma, the radio station had repeatedly broadcast statements made by then Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda during the inauguration of the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Miami.

What Castañeda had said as part of his opening speech inviting the Latin American community of Miami, and especially Cubans, to consider the Institute their home, was that "The doors of the Mexican Embassy in Havana are open to all Cuban citizens, as is Mexico."

TV Martí is a U.S. government station that first went on the air in March 1990 from the Florida Keys.

The idea of broadcasting TV programming to Cuba from the United States took flight on Sep. 30, 1988 when the U.S. House of Representatives assigned 7.5 million dollars for trials by a TV station that would function along the lines of Radio Martí.

However, TV Martí is not picked up on the island, not even during the seasons when atmospheric conditions allow people to capture TV signals from other Spanish- and English-speaking countries.

"Nothing, we’re going to see nothing here. I’ve heard talk of TV Martí for a long time and I’ve never seen it," said Mario Pujarón, a 73-year-old pensioner, who is certain the island has the necessary means "to block transmission."

For years Cuban families have had only two TV channels, with programmes basically running from the evening up until midnight.

In the last two years, two new channels have begun to broadcast programming with extra educational and artistic content, instructional courses and foreign documentaries.

"The Cuban population wants more information from abroad," stated Lorenzo Sánchez, a university student who said he sometimes listens to Radio France, the BBC in London and stations from Spain.