Trapped on an island prison and starved for information and news from the outside world, the Cuban people for years have relied on the “weekly packet,” digital drives filled with foreign movies, television series, news, and books that are passed around and sold. However, with the stroke of the communist Castro dictatorship’s pen, that media is now banned.
The publication of a list containing 125 prohibited economic activities for micro, small, and medium-sized private enterprises (Mipymes), non-agricultural cooperatives (CNA), and self-employed workers (TCP) in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba No. 78 of 2024 has introduced significant changes, including the end of the well-known “weekly package.”
The Weekly Package is a mix of entertainment widely circulated on the island for several years, featuring movies, shows, series, novels, cartoons, and other audiovisual products, distributed on an external hard drive of approximately 1 terabyte.
The fear of Cuban authorities is evident through the enactment of this new measure and Decree 107/2024, which regulates activities that are not permitted for this sector of the country.
In this document, the regime states that “the activities that micro, small and medium-sized private enterprises, non-agricultural cooperatives, and self-employed workers can perform are those considered lawful, except for those regulated in the list of unauthorized activities, which is annexed and forms an integral part of this Decree.”
In section 61, under “Information, communication, and telecommunications,” it establishes that the activity of film exhibition, including movies, documentaries, series, novels, or similar works, as well as their availability to the public through digital media, is prohibited.
For years, Cuban leaders have expressed concern over the content circulating in the so-called “weekly package.”
The left’s biggest fear has always been the free flow of information. They are quite cognizant of the fact that the darkness of socialism cannot survive in the light, so they attempt to extinguish it to keep the masses in the dark.
The usual suspects couldn’t care less. Anything to save the “revolution” from going under.