On the box

Once again, the Castro regime has used its own tightly controlled media to warn Cubans they face hefty fines and up to five years in prison if they are caught using “illegal” satellite dishes.

According to the latest edition of Granma, the propaganda sheet for the regime, the rooftop reception dishes and satellite access cards are being sold by “unscrupulous” profiteers.

Of course, what worries the regime is not that Cubans using illegal dishes may be breaching copyright laws, let alone the safety or reliability of the normally home-made contraptions.

Far from it.

As the article makes clear, what worries the Communist Party hierarchy is the fact that Cubans use the dishes to watch “subversive” or “enemy” programming from overseas, mainly the US.