MIAMI, USA — Cuban blogger and independent journalist Yoani Sanchez said, despite restrictions on cyberspace in Cuba, the internet is changing the communist country.
“The virtual Cuba is influencing, directly and definitively, the real Cuba,” she said during a lecture at Florida International University in Miami, after recounting a story about how Cubans, using text messages on the government-controlled cell phone network, were able to mobilize hurricane relief for the Oriente area of Cuba.
“The internet is helping us explain to the world what is happening inside our country,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez addressed an audience of 500 on the restrictions the Cuban government places on free expression, including internet access, and the impact of technology on the possible democratization of Cuba.
