Nearly $4.4 million for message campaign targeting Cuba

Tracey Eaton

Nearly $4.4 million for message campaign targeting Cuba 

Multimillion-dollar campaign targeting Cuba 

Washington Software, the contractor hired to flood Cuba with email and text messages, has earned more than $1.2 million in government contracts this year, records show.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, or BBG, hired the firm on July 1, 2011. Since then, the BBG has paid the company $4,398,409, according to records found in the Federal Data Procurement System.

The BBG oversees the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which operates Radio & TV Martí in Miami.

The nearly $4.4 million has gone toward such tasks as:

Designing and operating a Short Message Service, or SMS, social network. 

Sending text messages to Cuba via SMS 

Coming up with ways to prevent the Cuban government from jamming its electronic messages. 

Programming computers. 

Sending email blasts. 

Washington Software is based in Germantown, Md.