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Washington.- The U.S. delegation that traveled to Cuba last April asked the Cuban government to allow internet to be brought to the island through Starlink satellites, from SpaceX, a company owned by magnate Elon Musk.
A senior State Department official explained to EFE this Tuesday that this initiative would allow internet connection, currently under state monopoly, to be "free, reliable and fast throughout the island".
This was one of the points discussed at the meeting held on April 10 in Havana between officials of the island's government and a high-level delegation from the State Department, which marked the first landing of a U.S. government aircraft on Cuban territory since 2016.
In addition, a senior State official met separately during his stay on the island with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of Raúl Castro and grand-nephew of Fidel Castro, considered key in the dialogues between both countries. The Cuban government confirmed on Monday that, as U.S. media had anticipated, a meeting was held on the island between representatives of Washington and Havana.In addition to addressing the Starlink issue, representatives of the Donald Trump Administration brought up "the need for Cuba to implement economic and governance reforms" to "improve competitiveness and attract foreign investment," according to the State Department official.
They also raised "proposals to compensate U.S. citizens and corporations for assets and properties confiscated" after the Cuban revolution of 1959, a long-standing issue that the U.S. Supreme Court is analyzing. Furthermore, the US government reiterated its demand to release political prisoners and to allow "greater political freedoms", and expressed its concern about the "presence of foreign intelligence and terrorist groups" that, according to Washington, operate on the island. According to the American press, among the prisoners whose release Washington is demanding are dissident artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo. The North American country's delegation indicated that Cuba has "a limited window to implement key reforms supported by the United States before circumstances worsen irreversibly."He also assured that Trump "is committed to the pursuit of a diplomatic solution, if possible, but will not allow the island to collapse and become a threat to national security" of the United States.
The Deputy Director General in charge of the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alejandro García del Toro, confirmed on Monday to the official newspaper Granma that "a meeting between delegations from Cuba and the United States was recently held here in Cuba."You may be interested in: Russia begins launching its own internet into space via satellite to compete with Starlink
The Cuban diplomat added that no "deadlines" or "coercive approaches" were established in the meeting, contrary to information that appeared in US media that spoke of a two-week ultimatum to release certain relevant political prisoners. The United States began to pressure Cuba with demands for political and economic reforms after its military intervention in Venezuela, which culminated in the capture of that country's president, Nicolás Maduro. Washington has blocked the entry of oil to the island since January, which has exacerbated to the extreme an economic and social situation already critical.
