Cuba has jammed anti-Castro television programming

HAVANA, Oct 27: Cuba has jammed the latest anti-Castro television programming beamed over by the United States, according to an informal survey of Cubans who tried to watch the shows that included baseball's championship series.

''A friend told me they were going to broadcast the World Series, so I got together some people to watch and all we saw was static,'' Eduardo, a 33-year-old eastern Santiago resident who does odd jobs for a living, said yesterday.

''I went next door where there is a better television and looked until 11 pm On Channel 20 it seemed like some signal was trying to get through, but it was jammed,'' Havana resident Eddi Machin said.

The Bush administration has pledged to strengthen TV Marti broadcasts in hopes of undermining Cuba's communist government, provisionally headed by Defense Minister Raul Castro while his brother, President Fidel Castro, recovers from intestinal surgery.

TV Marti officially began new aircraft-based broadcasts on Tuesday to baseball-crazed Cuba, starting with game three of the World Series between the St Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers.

The leased G1 twin turboprop, based in Key West, Florida, and loaded with millions of dollars worth of new equipment, was to be airborne between 6 pm and 11 pm every night except Sunday in yet another attempt to bypass government jamming, especially in western Cuba, TV Marti officials said.

Since Radio Marti's inception in the 1980s and TV Marti's start in the 1990s, Cuba has charged they violate international law. Other critics say they are a waste of federal money.

''The only rationale for flushing taxpayer money down the toilet year after year is to force the Cuban government to spend money to block the signal,'' said Julia Sweig, director of Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

TV Marti officials did not immediately return phone calls yesterday seeking comment on Havana's apparent continuing success in jamming the broadcasts.

Radio Marti can sometimes be heard over the Cuban government jamming, but the TV Marti signal apparently has never gotten through.

''It is still the television you can't see. I looked for it and couldn't find anything,'' said William Martinez in the westernmost province of Pinar del Rio.

In Matanzas province, health worker Diana said her efforts this week were also futile.

''If the plane keeps coming closer, I am sure someday I will be able to climb on my roof and see it, but I doubt I will ever see the famous TV Marti,'' she said.

Reuters