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The official media outlet Razones de Cuba published an article this Monday in which it openly admits that Starlink creates a "parallel and uncontrollable" communications network for the Cuban State, thereby revealing the regime's central fear: the existence of a digital infrastructure that completely escapes its surveillance and censorship.
The text, titled "Starlink's Hybrid War Against Cuba," acknowledges that SpaceX's satellite architecture makes it "inherently resistant to physical attacks or government interdiction" and warns that this represents "an existential threat" to the regime.
The post is the regime's propagandistic response after rejecting the ultimatum from the U.S. that conditioned economic concessions on the installation of Starlink, the release of political prisoners, and progress towards free elections.
The official article precisely lists the uses that the regime fears from this network: coordinating protests, spreading information, connecting activists with the outside world, and "evading the state's surveillance and control systems."
By listing them, the regime confirms that its rejection of Starlink is not technical or legal, but political: a network that cannot be cut off or spied on is a network that cannot be controlled.
The publication describes SpaceX's operation as a "deliberate strategy of feigned illegality" and asserts that the terminals "do not arrive as declared merchandise," but rather concealed within solar panels, televisions, car parts, and food shipments.
According to the official text itself, in 2025 the government seized more than 80 routers, 20 terminals, and seven antennas.
The regime justifies prison sentences of between three and eight years for those who possess these devices, citing Article 295.1 of the Penal Code and the Decree-Law 35/2021, which reserves the import, installation, and use of radiocommunication equipment exclusively for the State.
The official text goes so far as to compare a Starlink antenna to "the installation of microphones, cameras, or missile launch sites on national territory."
The diplomatic context explains the urgency of the article. The Trump administration formally offered Starlink to Cuba on April 10, during the first U.S. government flight to Havana since 2016.
A senior official from the State Department confirmed to EFE on April 21 that the proposal included "free, fast, and reliable connectivity throughout the island." The regime rejected the offer nine days later.
The regime's fear of free access to the internet has documented precedents. During the protests of July 11, 2021, ETECSA carried out massive internet cuts across the island to prevent the spread of images and the coordination of demonstrators, interruptions confirmed by NetBlocks and Access Now.
The state telecommunications monopoly has extended its concession until 2036.
In March, Elon Musk confirmed that Starlink "works in Cuba, it just can't be sold there," which confirms that the satellite signal already reaches the island. In the informal Cuban market, the equipment is circulating at prices ranging from 1,300 to 2,000 dollars.
The article from Razones de Cuba concludes that Starlink "is not just an internet service," but "an operational tool, a logistical facilitator, and an external interference asset designed to undermine the sovereignty and security of the Cuban state."
The phrase, when viewed from the perspective of the Cuban people, amounts to admitting that the regime sees free access to the internet as a threat to its own survival.
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