There is something very eerie about black markets flourishing imperviously in a place like Fidel Castro’s Cuba. It’s one of the world’s most repressed places, with only North Korea more hostile to the perfectly human activity of trade, there demonized as ‘capitalism.’

But such trade markets do flourish in Cuba, on, of all things, the elusive Internet. Yet other than in North Korea again, there is no country where Internet access is more tightly controlled than Castro’s island carcel. Somehow, they flourish anyway, giving us a window into the holes in the Castro police state, holes that allow the human spirit to breathe.

Our Cuban exile friends at Killcastro.com (named after graffiti in Havana depicting local sentiment) have discovered some of these eerie underground trade networks that, thus far, have managed to evade even Castro’s ubiquitous secret police organs. It’s amazing that they are still there, business as usual, because the Castroites have been cracking down on all illicit trade activity, given the parlous state of the Cuban economy. My writeup on that is here.

These mysterious Cuban capitalists, carrying on Internet trade, even with the odds strongly against them in terms of Internet access, as well as in with the prospect of draconian penalties if they are caught – are scarily independent revolutionaries in Castro’s Cuba.

The whole strange story can be read here.