Today, the United States' hegemony over the planet has entered a stage of decline, both economically and ideologically, and can only be kept by relying on military actions that increasingly require means for war produced with modern technologies by the military complex of that country and media manipulation.

In the so-called Third World, there are already alternatives to the Yankee monopoly on infrastructure and communications technologies, but they are concentrated in a few countries. Most depend on the conglomerate of satellites, fiber optic cables, radio and television stations, Internet service providers and digital networks in the hands of large monopolies at the service of money.

The Cuban Revolution very early on, at the behest of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, laid the foundations for the development of communications, electronics, computing and automation in all sectors of the country and for the education of masses in these matters. It was a conception of the role of these technologies in achieving independence and preserving national security. In his closing remarks at Pedagogy 90 at the Karl Marx Theater on February 9, 1990, he referred to this:

“Independence is not a flag, or an anthem, or a shield; independence is not a matter of symbol, independence depends on development, independence depends on technology, it depends on science in today's world. How can we achieve this without education? How can we compete without education? How can we manage modern machines without education, today when almost everything is resolved through electronics and computing? In the era of these techniques, how can we be free while remaining illiterate, if we do not start with education?”1

This idea of the top leader of the Cuban revolutionary process reveals the purpose of putting the advances of technology at the disposal of the people, of creating a culture in its use. Thus, he projected the use of television for educational purposes as early as 1961, the introduction of computers in the sugar harvest in 1969 and later in the different levels of education, denounced the spy programs and the blockade of telecommunications in our country, created the Youth Computing and Electronics Clubs and the University of Informatic Sciences (UCI).

His prominence as a visionary strategist reached its peak when the US government decided in the second half of the 1980s to attack Cuba by sending television signals with subversive content. The US government, Congress, Armed Forces and Intelligence Agencies participated directly in this operation. They hired technology companies and academics from universities and research centers, who studied and proposed the best technical variants.

Under Fidel's guidance, a whole system of organizational, regulatory, technical, educational, political, communicative and diplomatic measures was applied, aimed at guaranteeing the protection of the Cuban radio spectrum, which resulted in a resounding defeat of US imperialism in the technological order: A few minutes after the signal of the wrongfully named TV Martí went on the air on March 27, 1990, it was blocked, and this was the case for the entire time it was on the air. There were even threats to bomb the interference points and acts of war were carried out, when in August 2004 they began to transmit from a military aircraft of the EC-130 type, belonging to the Solo Command of a Psychological Warfare Unit of the United States Armed Forces, a signal that was also blocked. How would we have managed to preserve our sovereignty without well-trained and qualified specialists and technicians?

This thought has been present in the objective of developing technologies and products that allow us to follow our own course in the expansion of telecommunications services, electronic commerce and in the creation of tools to oppose cyberattacks in different modalities. The design, development and manufacture of the first Cuban digital computer, the CID-201, the Segurmática antivirus, EcuRed, Transfermóvil, En zona, toDus and Picta have confirmed Fidel's idea that we can go from being a consumer to a producer of technological developments based on the economic, social and sovereignty development of the country.

For these reasons, it’s very important that the Third National Cybersecurity Conference, taking place from November 20-30, has prioritized the exchange with young people and children on the safe and responsible use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in schools, universities, facilities of the Youth Clubs, the UIC and in work centers, as well as the realization of short courses and contests on cybersecurity issues.

Perhaps it’s time, based on the study and contextualized interpretation of Fidel's thought, to undertake new educational and social projects that allow from an early age to address, with a critical sense, the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, how to achieve healthy recreation on the network and nourish ourselves with knowledge, and the analysis of harmful content circulating on digital networks, which have nothing to do with our identity. It’s about keeping his legacy alive in the field of ICTs and their safe use and creatively facing the complex challenges of today.

Fidel calls on us to be eternally dissatisfied and to always do much more. This was reflected in the closing of the IV Congress of UNEAC, on January 28, 1988:

“Is what we have done enough? We would immediately answer no. We could ask ourselves if we have the right to remained pleased with our successes, of the efforts made, which were, from what was recalled here about literacy, to the extraordinary accumulation of facts and activities, even of successes of the Revolution in the cultural field. But if one analyzes that history and analyzes it with a critical eye, one has to recognize that, in culture, as in all other activities, we cannot be satisfied with what we have done, and we have to draw the conclusion that we could have done much more […]2.

Notes

1- Castro Ruz, Fidel: Speech at the closing of Pedagogía 90, Carlos Marx Theater, February 9, 1990. Granma Digital, Fidel's Speeches.

2- Cañedo Ramírez, Elier. Morlote Rivas, Luis: “The first thing that must be saved, Fidel's speeches at UNEAC. Ediciones Unión, 2021, p. 76. Speech given by the Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz, at the closing of the IV Congress of UNEAC, Palace of Conventions, January 28, 1988.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSi Translation Staff