President Joe Biden is still exploring options to restore Internet access to Cuba after the regime shut it down on July 11, the White House claimed on Friday.
The Communist government of Cuba cut Internet access on the island in response to protests that began that day, preventing protesters from communicating or organizing as the political uprising for freedom continues.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not have an update to the president’s claim last Thursday that he was exploring the possibility of the United States intervening by offering restored Internet access to the country.
“They’ve cut off access to the Internet,” Biden said during a press conference last week. “We’re considering whether we have the technology to reinstate that access.”
Biden spoke about the idea after Governor Ron DeSantis and other Florida Republicans sent a letter urging him to explore options.
“The one thing that communist regimes fear the most is the truth, and if we are able to help Cubans communicate with one another and with the outside world, that truth is going to matter,” DeSantis wrote.
But Biden still has not acted.
When asked for an update to the president’s promise — and if the administration would consider using high-tech balloons to provide Cubans with Internet access, Psaki replied, “I wish it was that easy.”
“We are exploring a range of options. We are quite focused and interested in restoring internet access to the people of Cuba,” she added.
Psaki did not explain why the United States had not yet acted to help Cubans restore Internet access, but endorsed the idea.
“We feel if we could get it done it would be a great step forward and beneficial to the people of Cuba,” she said.
Biden faces continued criticism for being too slow to react to Cuba’s protests and remaining unwilling to act definitively to assist the movement.
Former President Donald Trump criticized Biden’s reaction to the protests during an interview with Telemundo.
“I think he’s from a different planet; he doesn’t understand the plight of the people of Cuba,” Trump said, referring to Biden. “What this administration is doing is just going to prolong it [the Castro regime].”