US Blockade Caused $65 Million in Losses on Cuba's Telecom

On Wednesday, Cuba’s Telecommunications Deputy Minister Wilfrido Gonzalez denounced that the U.S. blockade has severely affected his country’s telecommunications sector.

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"Between April and December 2020, the U.S. blockade has caused damages to this field worth US$65 million," Gonzalez said, adding that the Cuban telecommunications company ETECSA had been restricted from accessing technologies and equipment licensed by U.S. companies.

First imposed in 1962, the blockade bars U.S. companies from doing business with Cuba and selling products containing more than 10 percent of U.S. components to the island.

The U.S. blockade also harms exports of services and blocks access to websites, e-commerce platforms, and the video conferencing app Zoom.

Despite the U.S. economic sanctions, 64 percent of the country's 11 million inhabitants access the Internet as digital TV signal covers more than 76 percent of the island's territory.

President Donald Trump's administration (2017-2021) tightened diplomatic pressure and economic harassment against Cuba through actions such as placing this Caribbean nation back on the list of countries that do not cooperate in the fight against terrorism.

Last year, the Cuban government presented a report showing that the island had lost US$5.5 billion between April 2019 and March 2020. The accumulated damage over the last six decades amounts to US$144 billion, at current prices.