Cuba and Venezuela have signed a confidential contract to lay an undersea fibre-optic cable which will give Cuba a proper internet connection for the first time.

Documents released by Wikileaks show that Cuba has worked a way around the US's technical blockade by doing a deal with Venezuela, which is not exactly a friend of George Bush.

The United States' economic embargo of the island has forced it to rely on slow and expensive satellite links for internet connectivity. To connect to Venezuela, a 1,500 kilometre cable will be laid connecting Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad to the rest of the world via La Guaira, Venezuela.

The work is to be carried out by CVG Telecom and ETC of Cuba, and will bring Cuba directly into the sphere of South American economic politics. X

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