Yoani: The blackout comes to an end

Half-an-hour ago, Yoani Sanchez posted her confirmation that, indeed, she is now able to connect to her own blog, Generation Y, from her own laptop via a Cuban hotel lobby Wi-Fi signal.

Now, once broadband is up and running in Cuba in the next few months, we'll see if she and other Cubans will be permitted to connect to the sites they choose from the comfort of their own homes.  Watch closely what the newly proposed telecommunications law says about any opening in the market for household Internet connection.

Here is my quick translation of an excerpt from her post. The full English version should be up on her blog soon enough.

I do not know the reasons behind the end to this particular blockade, although I can speculate that it has something to do with the celebration of the International Computer Science Fair 2011 in Havana this week.  With so many foreign invitees present in the country, it is perhaps better to show them an image of tolerance, of supposed openings in the realm of citizen expression.  


It is also possible that after having discovered that blocking a website only serves to make it more attractive to "internauts," the cyber-polic have opted to exhibit the forbidden fruit that they had so satanized in recent months.  If this ends up being but a technical glitch that will soon be fixed, throwing a shadow once again over my virtual diary, there will be plenty of time to denounce it in a loud voice.  But for the moment, I am making plans for a long stay at the platforms www.desdecuba.com and www.vocescubanas.com.


This is a citizen victory over the demons of control.  We have recovered what belongs to us - those virtual plazas that are ours - with which they will have to learn to live and which they can no longer deny.