Miguel Díaz-Canel met this week with dozens of prominent cederistas from across the country to reaffirm the relevance of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution just days ahead of its 66th anniversary, and the outcome was predictable: while the president urged to "provide the answers from the CDR that this time requires," ordinary Cubans responded on social media with a terse "that's been dead for a long time, don't count on me."
The event, reported on the Presidency's website this Friday and featured today on Canal Caribe, served for Díaz-Canel to describe the neighborhoods as "the main setting of the Revolution," with the logical sequence that if the neighborhood is functioning well, the municipality, the province, and the country are also functioning well. A chain of dominoes that, judging by the Cuban reality, has been down for years.
The leader acknowledged, albeit somewhat reluctantly, the underlying issue: "There are many people thinking that this is already an outdated organization, one that makes no sense under current conditions, that contributes nothing." His response was to insist that "it is quite the opposite," although he did not explain how a neighborhood watch structure founded in 1960 can be revitalized when people have been emigrating en masse for years and the members themselves are aging without succession.
He was accompanied at the meeting by Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, and Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, National Coordinator of the CDR, who has been calling for a "revitalization" of the organization for years without anyone seeming to listen too closely. The decline of the CDR is acknowledged by the leadership itself: low participation, aging leadership, and lack of interest among youth are the constants that the regime tries to cover up with new acronyms and parallel movements.
This is precisely what initiatives like "My Neighborhood for the Homeland" and the Community Youth Network, led by the Union of Young Communists, are for. The regime also tasked the cederistas with promoting the 176 Economic and Social Transformations, a package of capitalist reforms that the Government intends to present as a reinforcement of "socialism." Díaz-Canel requested that the cederista leaders implement them "block by block."
The official speech spoke of neighborhood solidarity and of reaching out "to the elderly man living alone, to the retiree who gave everything for the Revolution and now needs support." The ironic detail is that this support is promised in a country facing blackouts lasting between 18 and more than 20 hours daily, a power generation deficit exceeding 2,000 MW, and a shortage of food and medicines that affects both neighborhoods and provinces alike. According to Prisoners Defenders, by the end of August this year, there were 1,339 political prisoners on the island.
Internet users did not overlook the contradiction. "Stop with the stories, times have changed, motivations have changed, expectations have changed," wrote one. Another was more direct: "Scammers." A third asked, with sarcasm that needs no translation: "Can someone tell me in which country this is happening?"
There were those who pointed out the real elephant in the room and recalled that "GAESA is the only monopoly whose assets were mostly acquired from the national economy without any compensation." Another added with a phrase that sums up the true state of the organization: "That no longer exists, stop the lies, only the pricing works."
The event took place on the eve of the 66th anniversary of the CDR, which will be commemorated next Monday, September 28. The regime awarded 134 outstanding CDR members this week through Presidential Decree 1284, signed by Díaz-Canel at the beginning of September. The main event for the anniversary is set to take place in Matanzas, a province recognized as National Vanguard in the organization's emulation for 2026.
This year, the official celebration commemorates the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth, who founded the CDR on September 28, 1960, as a network for neighborhood vigilance and reporting.
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