Will the Cuban government limit internet access?

Donald Trump's assumption of the presidency of the United States marked a significant halt to the thawing of relations between the United States and Cuba, which had been brewing since 2014 at the initiative of Barack Obama. While the island's government has expressed deep discontent in its official discourse over the setbacks of the new Republican administration, the truth is that many sectors within the Cuban government are content with the return of the customary hostility.

Cuba has changed in recent years, and many of the transformations that have taken place on the island certainly preceded December 17, 2014, but they are not unrelated to that moment when both governments decided to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies.

Many scholars recognize that the opening of self-employment, immigration reforms that eliminated Cubans' travel permits to travel freely anywhere in the world, and free internet access from Wi-Fi hotspots were some of the bargaining chips used by the Cuban government to get Obama to sit down and negotiate.

The first Black president in the history of the United States intended to change his policy toward Cuba, but he first needed to convince less enthusiastic members of Congress that the communist regime was making progress in terms of individual liberties and human rights.

John Kerry himself, Secretary of State during the second Obama administration, let the press know during his visit in preparation for the presidential trip that the opening of Wi-Fi zones had been one of the requests made to the Cuban government before Air Force One landed in Boyeros.

While the measures adopted by Castro were of limited scope for the White House, the more conservative wing of the Cuban government also did not welcome this rapprochement, as the new freedoms undermined their hegemony within the island. And they were right, for the mass exodus of Cubans abroad meant they were discovering a very different reality than that perceived by a population mostly born after 1959; the empowerment of a new, emerging economic sector would eventually bring class interests and call into question the state's ability to administer certain spheres; and new internet access services would provide alternative information to passive recipients of the official press.

In any case, Castro was forced to play these cards and assume the aforementioned risks if he sought to end American hostility and find greater economic and commercial opportunities with the United States, at a time when Chávez was already ill and the future of Venezuela, the Cuban revolution's lifeline in recent decades, was uncertain.

Thus began the secret negotiations of Barack Obama's first administration, which would open on December 17, 2014, like the emerging peak of an iceberg whose bulk lay beneath a sea of ​​silence.

However, after Trump's arrival at the White House, a considerable setback was looming, which the Republican was quick to announce, meeting with his Republican voters in Florida. Given the new scenario, a retreat from Cuba and the return of hostile rhetoric between the two countries are also to be expected.

This is true, even if some sectors within the communist government are not openly pleased, as they are taking heart at the opportunity Trump offers them to once again tighten their absolute control over those spheres where they had lost ground. The rule of thumb would be the same one applied for decades: a policy of hasty reactions to every new threat, interference, or attack from the White House. For example, if Trump announces that he will allocate millions to empower small businesses in Cuba, the Cuban government responds by further impeding non-state activity.

Just weeks after the first statements of the current American president on his policy regarding Cuba, the Caribbean government decided to stop the granting of new licenses for self-employment, which was received with great displeasure by those who had found in non-state work a less oppressive and better way to compensate.uneway to survive on the island.

Now, as Washington speaks of the need to seek new alternatives to expand internet access among Cubans, the communist government has already announced in an official statement that it has regulated and will continue to regulate the flow of information on the island. From these words, one could deduce a gradual closure of the current connection facilities for Cubans.

Despite the island's prohibitive internet prices and poor service quality, more and more people are connecting to the internet, primarily to communicate with their families and loved ones abroad, but also to consume materials that differ in form and content from those received through official propaganda sources.

Few would be surprised if in the coming days internet access is restricted, or if access from the island is denied to new sites or web pages with opposing political leanings. The Cuban government no longer needs to wink at the current US administration, as Trump will not be even remotely an interlocutor, as Obama was.

The outlook for Cubans in the coming months is uncertain; some of the freedoms they have known in recent years could be curtailed.