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Havana (AFP) Feb 9, 2011 Cuba on Wednesday hailed a new undersea fiber optic cable connecting the communist island to Venezuela as a blow to the decades-old US embargo. "This cable reinforces our sovereignty... and opens a gap in the genocidal blockade imposed by successive American governments," Cuban Information and Communications Minister Medardo Diaz said during a ceremony in Santiago de Cuba, 870 kilometers (540 miles) southeast of Havana. Valued at $70 million and considered one of the most ambitious projects between oil-rich Venezuela and cash-strapped Cuba, the cable laying began on January 22. The cable was run 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) from Camuri, in northern Venezuela, before reaching its destination on Tuesday. When the submarine cable is operational in July, it is expected to allow a connection of up to 640 gigabytes a second with download speeds 3,000 faster than what Cuba has now. Havana says the US trade embargo on Cuba, first imposed in 1962, forced it to resort to costlier and slower satellite connections for Internet access. Despite the revamped access, authorities say Internet use will be limited to "social" purposes and that priority would be given to developing public Internet access centers, especially in universities and other educational institutions. Deputy Minister of Information Jorge Luis Perdomo insisted on Monday that "there is no political obstacle" to Internet access in Cuba. But the opposition and dissidents charge the government is imposing ideological restrictions that aim to maintain authorities' control on sources of information and expression. The new cable "will remain at the service of our people, a tool to reinforce its development, integration and sovereignty," Diaz said. Jamaica is next on the cable's route.
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