El Nuevo Herald (Miami, Florida)

October 25, 2006 Wednesday

A new airline aims to break the information blockade on Cuba

 

RUI FERREIRA El Nuevo Herald

First it was Radio Marti and TV Marti later we now have Aero Martí. The latest addition to the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) is a modern twin-engine Gulfstream G-1, through which it intends to Cubans on the island the impact of the baseball World Series, and initiate broadcasts schedule star of television programming that U.S. government entity.


With the device, whose inaugural flight departed yesterday from Key West, the federal government seeks to avoid electronic interference that the government of the island has remained continuously against transmissions, since it debuted in the early 90s.


''The transmission from this modern, fully equipped aircraft is a timely effort to that TV Marti can fulfill its mission to break the information blockade of the Cuban dictatorship, providing the Cuban people live accurate and objective news and high quality programming at this crucial moment in its history,''said CBO director, Pedro Roig, in a discreet ceremony in Key West, according to a press release.


The device is in the service of OCB, as a rental agreement of flight hours with a company called Phoenix Air, and will fly six days a week in prime time between 6 pm and 11 pm.
Roig said El Nuevo Herald for the first time, this aircraft has an ability to do live broadcasts, unlike the previous aerial platform he was only able to deliver recorded programming.


The hiring of an aircraft for the emissions of OCB was a process that dragged on over five years, and involved many negotiations in Congress, where the departments of State and Defense vied for the use of previous aerial platform, a Hercules C -130 called Commando Solo''ownership''of the Pentagon.


OCB finally achieved the task of obtaining a plane himself after the White House gave the green light to the inclusion of funds for its acquisition, in the federal budget last year.

Initially the idea was to buy a plane, but ultimately opted to rent OCB flight hours in the
current apparatus, with a view to achieving in the near future, renting a second device.


''Our budget [additional] $ 10 million allowed us to not only get the equipment on board the plane, but also rent flight hours, including a second flight soon,''said Roig.


The annual two-aircraft operation transmitters cost $ 5 million to taxpayers.
According to Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the start of daily broadcasts in primetime and the rental of the aircraft `` was a promise from President Bush that, with your help, we could include in the budget.
The timing could not be more auspicious for this new technology to break the information blockade of the Cuban tyranny.''


Under international law, the Gulfstream espacioa éreo should fly within the U.S., where capture satellite signals emitted by TV Marti and become a signal of UHF for the island. In the past, the Cuban government has complained that''made' 'Commando Solo broadcasts from international waters adjacent to Cuban airspace, but gave no details of their complaint.


In the plane--which curiously is registation N820CB match the year that Ronald Reagan administration approved the creation of Radio Martí and the initials of the Federal agency that brings together the transmissions to the island - have been installed 4 television transmitters
A total of 4,500 watts of power.


The spectrum of their emissions are mostly oriented towards the western part of Cuba, reported