Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) called on President Joe Biden on Wednesday to help provide internet access to Cubans following reports that blackouts left many citizens on the island without online communication.
“For many days no one here has been able to connect because they cut the [internet] connection,” Cuban citizen Andrea López told Reuters. “On the first days they cut the calls, they cut everything. My husband is in Mexico, I haven’t been able to talk to him. Nothing. All of this is how they [the Cuban regime] want it.”
“As you know, the Cuban people are taking to the streets to protest the Communist regime, and the Cuban government has responded with violence,” DeSantis said. “At first, the world could see the images and videos of this mass movement, but now the tyrannical regime of President Miguel Diaz-Canel has shut off access to the internet.”
“The Cuban people have lost their ability to communicate with one another, and many Floridians born in Cuba have no information on the safety of their loved ones,” he added, noting that access to the internet is of “critical importance” as they protest against “the repressive Communist government.”
“In the hands of these brave individuals, such access may be the key to finally bringing democracy to the island,” DeSantis concluded in the letter.
“Without it, the Cuban people, who yearn for basic political and economic freedoms, can more easily be monitored, suppressed, detained, and brutalized by the regime without accountability,” the Republican senator wrote. “Bringing free and open internet will help the Cuban people communicate with one another without censorship and repression and show them that the world stands beside them in their quest for liberty.”
