The U.S. government failed to influence openness in Cuba via a fake Twitter account called "ZunZuneo." Attempts at trying to impact Cubans in a government-controlled country will not work, and perhaps will never work. This news came out on Thursday this week after the Associated Press uncovered the details.  

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is supposedly responsible for what some experts and critics are calling another U.S. failure in trying to disrupt the Cuban government. One must have to understand how the current Cuban system operates, and see how USAID's project failed.

The Cuban government has had a communist political system since 1959. The Communist Party of Cuba is the leading force of society and the state; it controls both Executive and Legislative powers of the state. And most importantly, it controls the information (media, TV, internet, etc.), and the creation of new knowledge. This can be easily seen or acknowledged by visiting one of the single online newspapers controlled by the government.

USAID was created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, by executive order to implement developmental assistance programs in areas authorized by the Congress in the Foreign Assistance Act. USAID is a U.S. federal government agency. The agency works in over 100 countries, and it is known for delivering humanitarian aid and assistance, disaster relief, and promoting the empowerment of civil societies and democracy, according to the USAID website.

The USAID, along with independent telecommunications sub-contractors, created ZunZuneo, a Cuban slang name for the sound Hummingbirds make. It was created in 2009 as an alternative form of communication in Cuba; ZunZuneo had over 40,000 users. Forbes reported that the agency obtained a database of half a million Cuban cell phone numbers.

The service disguised itself as a "savvy social-media service, then spammed those phone numbers with texts bearing news snippets or satirical jokes. The fake service allowed Cubans to send texts freely and anonymously to one another. It relied on a complex network of spoof servers and dummy companies to disguise ZunZuneo's origins in the US." But by 2012, ZunZuneo collapsed, Forbes reported.

The Cuban government responded, with the Director general for the U.S. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, by calling on Washington to stop these actions that at are illegal and covert against the country. Ferreiro also added that the "US government should respect international law, and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which has concluded that the Cuban people and the international public opinion reject their actions," the Lavanguardia reported. A similar declaration was reported by the Cuban government in the national newspaper "Granma."

The USAID and its independent contractors have denied any actions of spying or wrongdoing. The USAID stated that the project was to create a platform for Cubans to speak freely among themselves. One of the sub-contractors, Mobile Accord, also stated the same sentiment by adding that the program ran its course and it was defunded.

The Twitter project by the USAID, a humanitarian agency, is both baffling and inappropriate, The Washington Post reported. USAID went to great lengths to keep the US government involvement on a need-to-know basis.

ZunZuneo perhaps failed because it got too big too fast. It had earned 40,000 users, but there was no clear explanation how it was paying thousands of dollars in texting fees each month. The sub-contractors reportedly sent internal memos suggesting the service cut financial ties with USAID, and continue promoting political change in Cuba. And with the tens of thousands of users ZunZuneo had, advertising simply was not making enough money in a developing nation like Cuba. By June 2012, ZunZuneo was offline, Forbes reported.

Adolfo Franco, a former administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean of USAID says programs, although not secret, are treated with discretion in countries with authoritarian governments such as, Cuba. "USAID maintains a humanitarian role dedicated to supporting the developing countries on issues relating to poverty relief, in addition to programs in support of democracy, and freedom of expression," Franco said.

Twitter projects such as USAID's one will never succeed particularly in Cuba, unless the Cuban government embrace the United Nations Charter on Freedom of Speech, or at least Article 19 which states "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."