In a speech made yesterday, U.S. president George W. Bush lifted a ban on sending cell phones to Cuba. “If the Cuban people can be trusted with mobile phones they should be trusted to speak freely in public,” said Bush as he also called for the Cuban government to enact deeper economic reforms.
Recently, the Castro administration has enacted several changes including owning cell phones, staying in hotels, and access to farmland.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque reacted by calling Bush’s speech a “ridiculous act of propaganda and bad taste.” Perhaps more importantly, leaders of Cuban exile groups viewed the measure with mixed feelings:
"The more people in Cuba have access to cell phones, the more they'll be able to be connected with the outside world," said Marcibel Loo, a spokeswoman for the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate.
But Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, called Bush's mobile phone initiative "nothing new". Hernandez said the foundation has sent mobile phones to Cuba in the past and that what the dissidents on the island need is money.
Sources - The Latin Americanist, Guardian UK, earthtimes.org, International Herald Tribune, CNN
Image- BBC News
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