Cuban authorities accused Starlink of violating four separate American laws Monday, as they complained about unauthorized internet access spreading across the island.
The regulators complained in a Facebook post that SpaceX is illegally smuggling Starlink terminals into Cuba “like a digital bandit,” allowing citizens to skirt the regime’s telecom monopoly and state censorship. They cited four American statutes — from export law to embargo enforcement — to argue that the Elon Musk-owned company is running afoul of longstanding U.S. trade restrictions. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Top House Committees Sound Alarm On Suspected Chinese Spy Bases Just 90 Miles Off US Coast)
“Starlink arrives in Cuba as a supposed ‘digital lifeline’ — but at what legal cost?” the post, translated from Spanish, asks. “While some celebrate, the U.S. looks the other way, violating its own laws. Why has SpaceX turned a blind eye? Are the rules only meant for some? Access to the internet should not be an excuse to bypass international regulations.”
Cuba’s “Technical Budgeted Unit for Radioelectric Spectrum Control” said Starlink breaks the Cuban Assets Control Regulations from 1963 by rerouting subscription payments through third-country middlemen; the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, if dishes sit on property nationalized after 1959; the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, which treats the antennas as sensitive equipment needing a U.S. export license; and International Telecommunication Union rules that require permission from the country where the service is used — approval the Cuban government says it never gave.
“In Cuba, Starlink operates like a digital bandit — no license, no approval,” the post said. “Banks get hit with million-dollar fines for transferring $50 to Cuba, yet SpaceX moves high-value equipment, and no one says a word.”
Customs officers have seized at least 20 Starlink dishes at the José Martí International Airport since April and another cache of 85 routers bound for hidden networks, according to William Pérez González, deputy chief of the General Customs of Cuba. He said that interceptions included terminals stuffed inside televisions shipped from Miami, touting the “rigorous measures” he imposed to prevent further smuggling.
Despite those raids, Starlink kits continue to surface on the Revolico classifieds site, the Cuban equivalent of Craigslist, for as much as $2,000 — more than 100 times Cuba’s average monthly salary of $16 USD, according to CiberCuba — and the outlet reports rooftop units sprouting from Havana to Santiago. The appeal is speed and stability: Cuba’s lone provider, ETECSA, still reportedly ranks among Latin America’s slowest and most expensive network, with constant blackouts and modest 20-gigabyte data plans that can consume a week’s wages in a day, according to ETECSA’s listed prices. (RELATED: Cuba’s Power Grid Goes Dark, Officials Say)
“The internet is a right, sure — but laws exist for a reason,” the Cuban regulators wrote, liberally decorating the post with emojis. “Where is the limit? Breaking international order? Violating extraterritoriality? Creating dangerous precedents?”
U.S. policy is murkier than Cuba’s complaint suggests. The Treasury Department’s general licenses already permit American firms to sell “communications services” that expand internet access on the island, and the Biden administration in 2022 urged cloud and videoconferencing providers to do just that. Whether Starlink needs additional permission is an open question; neither the Treasury, which controls the Office of Foreign Assets Control, nor the State Department responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. SpaceX and the Cuban embassy in Washington likewise did not comment on Havana’s allegations, nor did they respond to the DCNF’s inquiries.
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