US Announces Task Force To Subvert Internal Order In Cuba

The U.S. Government will create a new Task Force on the Internet to spread destabilizing messages against the established order in Cuba and to attack the official nature and legitimacy of the Government.

The U.S. State Department announced the creation of a Cuba Internet Task Force made up of government and non-government representatives seeking to 'promote the free and unregulated flow of information' and 'expanding internet access and independent media' in Cuba, said a statement posted today on the U.S. State Department website.

A task force is a term used in the United States Armed Forces that defines a temporary unit to work in a specific operation or mission.

The media note said that the decision corresponds to the provisions of the National Security Presidential Memorandum 'Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba', of June 16th, 2017, issued by President Donald Trump in the city of Miami.

Trump, surrounded by members of the extreme right wing of Cuban origin, announced then a change of policy towards Cuba seeking to strengthen the blockade and limit travel between the two countries.

The U.S. State Department website also indicates that the Task Force's first public meeting will take place Wednesday, February 7th, 2018, at the headquarters of the State Department, in this capital city.

The Cuban Government has repeatedly denounced the actions of successive U.S. administrations since 1959 to subvert the internal order through policies aimed at what they call 'a change of regime'.

Cuba has highlighted the illegal nature of programs veiled by the alleged work 'for freedom of expression' and 'expansion of Internet access in Cuba,' that violate national laws, as well as international regulations in the field of the communication.

In 2014, the Associated Press released documents that proved the involvement of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the ZunZuneo project, created in 2009, with which it sought to boost a messaging platform among Cuban young people similar to Twitter, but the actual objective of which was to promote actions against the internal order of Cuba.

Shortly afterwards, Cuban authorities denounced the Piramideo program that promoted the creation of a network of friends, offering them the possibility of sending a massive text to the members of their pyramid for the value of just one message.

Another initiative of USAID was the plan to allocate $4.3 million USD to subcontracted companies to set up clandestine wireless networks in Cuba, as part of the project Conmotion.

The project Conmotion sought to offer alleged Cuban technological entrepreneurs the necessary devices for their own networks, and then link these to others abroad, creating a net of users to misinform the national situation or calling them to demonstrations.

By sovereign decision, the Cuban Government promotes a computerization strategy of society and a gradual increase of the people's access to the Internet.

According to the report Digital in 2017: Global Overview, the presence in social networks, Cuba was the fastest growing country in two categories last year: more than 2.7 million new users (365 percent compared to 2016) and 2.6 million people that used their cell phones to access social networks (385 percent increase).