Gloria Estefan and Willy Chirino back data blitz to beat censorship in Cuba
Cuban singers support campaign to make uncensored information available on the island
Cuban singers Gloria Estefan and Willy Chirino are backing a campaign to deliver "the internet without the internet" to the island via USB drives, DVDs, CDs and other memory formats loaded with uncensored information.
The "Connect Cuba" campaign will also include an online petition urging Havana to provide citizens with unabridged and affordable access to the internet, according to the Miami-based Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba.
"We want to empower the people in Cuba," said Tony Costa, a member of the board of directors and former president of the nonprofit foundation.
Martinez said the largely web-based campaign would use all social platforms and media to publicise the petition and highlight Cuba's rate of internet access - one of the lowest in the western hemisphere - and its tight censorship of the web.
"Connect Cuba" will also collect donations of money and equipment to send information to the island on USB flash drives and digital discs carried by volunteers. Computers and smartphones will also be sent, said Martinez.
He said Cubans pass around information in what Havana blogger Yoani Sanchez has called "the internet without the internet". Sanchez requested such assistance for civil society on the island when she visited Miami in April.
The Cuban government tightly controls the web on the island. Access is expensive or limited to government officials and facilities. Many pages created by the opposition are blocked and smartphones cannot connect to the internet.
Estefan and Chirino have recorded short videos urging support for the "Connect Cuba" campaign, and so have two Cuban dissidents who visited Miami recently - Ladies in White leader Berta Soler and Baptist pastor Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso.
Ana Villafaqe, of Cuban and Salvadoran descent, will record a specially written song that Costa hopes turns into the Cuban version of , the hit song written in 1985 for the USA for Africa charity.
The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba raises more than US$600,000 a year from private donors. The foundation was established by members of the Cuban American National Foundation in 1992.
