Cuba and Venezuela to lay undersea Internet cable

Earlier this week, Wikileaks published documents that were signed in 2006 by officials in Cuba and Venezuela describing plans for a new undersea cable that will connect the two countries and provide high-speed Internet access to Cuban citizens by 2010. The proposed cable, which is being deployed by CVG Telecom (Corporacion Venezolana de Guyana) and ETC (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba), will also provide high-speed Internet access to Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad. The new undersea cable is being built as a strategic partnership between Cuba and Venezuela to encourage an interchange between the two governments; foster science, cultural and social development; and increase economic relationships among Cuba, its South American neighbors, and the rest of the world. The United States economic embargo against Cuba has forced the communist country to rely on slow and expensive satellite links for Internet connectivity. Even though it would cost less and be more efficient to lay a new cable between Cuba and the US, which are only 120 kilometers apart, Cuba is working with Venezuela to lay a 1,500-kilometer cable to get high-speed Internet connectivity.