It is but yet another you don't say moment in the journalistic world. AFP is reporting that even when the fiber optic cable running from Venezuela, which will provide a dramatic increase in internet connectivity  to Cuba,  is completed in 2010, the totalitarian Cuban regime will STILL LIMIT ACCESS to the citizens on the island.

"We believe that the most responsible policy is to privilege collective access" to the Internet, said Boris Moreno, [Cuban] deputy minister of computer science and communication.

The excuse being used at this moment by the regime to limit access for Cubans to the internet is of course, the US embargo. With limited bandwidth, they have no choice but to "prioritize Internet access for 'social use' purposes, with universities, companies and research centers prioritized." With the fiber optic cable from Venezuela coming online, however, the bandwidth issues are gone. So instead, the regime will just find another excuse to limit access to the internet.

Which brings us to the oft heard premise that removing the US embargo against Cuba would deprive the regime of an excuse for their ineptitude and complete inability for the past fifty-years to run the Cuban economy. It seems the proponents of this notion are as naive as they are ill-informed. If the US lifts the embargo without any concessions from the dictatorship, they will just find another reason and something or someone else to blame for its incompetence, just like they have done for the last half century.