Cuba Launches Its Own Wikipedia Site

By Michael Lopez

Are you as confused as we are about all of the Wikis out there? There’s Wikipedia, the “almost accurate” online encyclopedia source. Then there’s WikiLeaks, that controversial whistleblowing site that people can't stop talking about these days. And now there’s EcuRed.cu, a Cuban version of Wikipedia that claims to present facts from a “non-colonial” viewpoint.

Launched on Tuesday, EcuRed already has about 20,000 entries written in conjunction with the Cuban government and presented entirely in Spanish. According the site’s mission statement, EcuRed’s purpose is "to create and disseminate the knowledge of all and for all, from Cuba and with the world.”

And the knowledge it is spewing sounds quite different from anything you’d read back home. For instance, EcuRed describes the United States as "the empire of our time, which has historically taken by force territory and natural resources from other nations, to put at the service of its businesses and monopolies."

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s entry says he “writes and participates in the struggle of ideas at a global level" and "influences important and strategic decisions of the Revolution." We can only imagine how it would describe Gloria Estefan.

Since its launch, EcuRed has encountered numerous crashes and technical difficulties. Not that it would matter for those wanting to view it in Cuba. According to a survey conducted by the island's state-run National Office of Statistics, fewer than 3 percent of Cubans have used the Internet during the past year.

So, if it’s not for them, who is EcuRed’s primary audience? Perhaps citizens of “the empire” looking for info on the man partaking in those “idea struggles?” Perhaps you can read up on this “new knowledge” yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Source: [BBC]

Would you trust information from Cuba's EcuRed? Sound off in the comments or @MTV3.

Tags Cuba, EcuRed, Fidel Castro, Politics, Wikipedia