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Author : M. Kamynin
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Cuba
AT THE VERY BEGINNING of April, revelations by the Asso-
ciated Press blew up not only the Cuban, but also the global media
sphere. They showed that in 2010-2012 Washington created and se-
cretly funded a mobile social network called ZunZuneo for a Cuban
audience, with far-reaching goals.
In the end, the network attracted about 40,000 residents of the is-
land. The spectacular service also evoked interest from children of
high-ranking civil servants. There were at least two million adver-
tising and entertainment messages delivered to Cuban ZunZuneo
subscribers over the following two years, according to official esti-
mates.
Today, thanks to the professionalism and perseverance of media, it has become clear what they tried to beguile
Cubans into through the careless tweeting. The ZunZuneo project, worked out in the depths of the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) which is subordinate to the Department of State, pursued aims
far removed from those of public enlightenment.
In the first stage, its main task was to assemble as big an audience as possible, at least 150-200 thousand out of the
11 million-strong Cuban population. Then the plan was to throw into the overall heap of mailings political slogans,
exhortations and even cartoons of Cuban leaders, pushing the island's youth into acts of civil disobedience. As for
the cartoons, this is no exaggeration: rough sketches of these items of propaganda have also come into the public
eye. The eventual purpose was to arrange something like a "Cuban Spring" based on patterns developed and tested
in other regions of the world.
The elites of the "Western club" are realizing more and more deeply that the flawed world order led by one hegemon
and based on "the right of the strong" is crumbling before our eyes.
Of course, the tens of thousands of Cuban ZunZuneo users had no inkling that they were unwittingly involved in
a subversive operation by the U.S. State Department, which was using them like pawns. Nor did they know that
their phone numbers and personal details were to go into a special database, and that the content of the messages
underwent analysis in order to identify their range of interests, political views and preferences.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the ZunZuneo cyber operation on the island got stalled and never entered a de-
cisive phase. The number of subscribers stopped at the 40,000 mark, a level clearly insufficient to start a "Twitter
revolution" Middle East style.
Most important, however, the scandal has highlighted the same old American obsession with regime change in Ha-
vana, regardless of the succession of White House occupants. They are only perfecting their methods - the objective
remains the same. Simply, 21st-century methods of unconventional warfare have come to take the place of sending
in "gusano" mercenaries (recall the Bay of Pigs). The main instrument of this warfare is the latest ICT technologies,
and its main driving force is young people socially loose, not seeing any prospects, disappointed in the future, and
ready to get worked up.
Summing up, I would like to stress once again: the common interests of our two countries in the information tech-
nology dimension are by no means an empty phrase. The Cubans have shown that in the matter of getting rid of
a one-sided picture of the world and constructing media multipolarity they are convinced allies of Russia. Working
together in this sector would be a worthy embodiment of the hopes that Havana and indeed Latin America as a
whole associate with our country as one of the architects of a more just, secure and humane world order.
http://interaffairs.ru
Russia and Cuba: Natural Allies in the Struggle for Media Multi-
polarity