Those who know I'm an independent journalist believe I have more information than they do. Whenever they see me, they ask questions I wish I could answer. They ask with the certainty that I can satisfy their curiosity, not even considering the possibility that I may not have up-to-the- minute news. They think a journalist should know everything that happens in the world. They have no idea that I'm as poorly informed as they are.

In Cuba, information is a prerogative, a state secret. Not even the government's own journalists have all the information, and those that may, by hook or by crook, come by it, are barred from divulging it until given orders to do so.

To find out what happened, is happening, or will happen in the planet, one has to wait until the head of the government, the Party, the State, or the Armed Forces say it or authorize that it be said. In the meantime, one has to make do with rosy fluff stories about the Chinese quarter or retirement homes which are aired three of four times a day through the two TV channels to which people have access.

Having information in Cuba is a priviledge of the powerful, or of daring, clandestine Internet navigators and happy owners of short-wave radios.

Mystery, secrecy, and compartmentalization are the natural state of information in Cuba. A state of emergency or war is not necessary to limit information. The right to know of every citizen on earth is reduced in Cuba to knowing what the government wants people to know. Since all media belong to the government, only that which is to their interest or convenience gets published.

That's why when people ask me about the new developments in the possible war against Afghanistan or about peace talks between Arafat and Shimon Peres, I can only shrug.

I'm a journalist without a phone, without a fax, without a computer with Internet access, and I don't even have a short wave radio. What can I know? What can I find out?

Lately, a rumor has been going around about a woman named Ana Belén Montes, a 44-year-old Puerto Rican who occupied a high position in the Pentagon and spied for the Cuban government. Who said it? The official media here haven't mentioned a word. Don't they want the Cuban people to know about it? That's the disadvantage of learning only what the government wants you to know.