Wake up!

ZunZuneo may be gone, but this operation – funded with “100 percent private Cuban capital,” its Twitter feed says, is sending texts to Cuba, more than 1,000 in its first few weeks of operation. The messages of Despierta Cuba (Wake up Cuba) are a mixture of political criticism and calls to protest and to unite with dissidents, whose phone numbers are sometimes included in the texts. Several photos of the texts show that they are sent from the 786 area code, using this Internet-based service for calling and texting Cuba. This photo shows that U.S. users are encouraged to send messages of their own, and Despierta Cuba will show how and provide phone numbers.

People will naturally ask if this is a USAID operation; it says it is not and it appears too simple and efficient to have been created by the U.S. government.