The matancera intellectual and activist Alina Bárbara López Hernández published this Sunday on her Facebook profile a text titled "Living by Appearances", in which she deconstructs the official image of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) based on a specific event: the designation of Matanzas as the National Vanguard of the organization, celebrated on Saturday at the Sauto Theatre.
The event, described by the official newspaper Granma as "a nice gift for its results," brought together authorities from the Matanzas region, the national vice-coordinator of the CDR, Yosveny Verdeal Castellanos, and representatives from coordinators in Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Río. López Hernández's publication comes on the eve of the 66th anniversary of the CDR, which is commemorated this Monday, September 28.
The activist, a resident of the city, contrasts official recognition with a reality that gala events overlook: according to the semiannual report from the Cuban Citizen Audit Observatory (OCAC), Matanzas ranks first for the first time in the national ranking of homicides (18 homicides), assaults (21), and robberies (155) in the first half of 2026, in addition to having been the epicenter of several epidemics in recent years.
"As is the case throughout the Island, in Matanzas, the CDR has become a massive and ineffective bureaucratic structure without social support. Many people don't even pay the monthly contribution, meetings are not held, CDR guard shifts, volunteer work days, blood donations, or the festivities related to September 28 are not happening. We have neighborhoods in darkness and at the mercy of crime," wrote López Hernández.
To illustrate this collapse, the author draws on an example from her own environment: a building across from her house, popularly known as "The Kremlin" due to the fervent spirit of its neighbors—many of whom are workers from the Provincial School of the Communist Party—that was once frequented by leaders as a model of activism. "For years now, The Kremlin has joined the apathy of the rest of the neighborhood where it is situated. Its events, once filled with loud music, speeches, and toasts amid a lively atmosphere, have become mere memories," she noted.
The reason for this decline, according to López Hernández, is not ideological but rather material: "Currently, people are too stressed thinking about what they will eat, how they will cook, how they will have light at night, how to avoid theft, how they will survive the next day." At the national level, murders in Cuba increased by 42.9% in the first half of 2026, rising from 63 to 90 compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the OCAC.
The activist herself incorporates in her analysis the words of Miguel Díaz-Canel, who in a meeting with leaders and prominent members of the CDR acknowledged the decline of the organization: “Many people think that this is already an old organization that makes no sense under current conditions and contributes nothing.” Although the leader assured that the reality is “quite the opposite,” he urged the structure to “reinvent itself” in the face of the crisis.
That official recognition of decline contrasts with the celebratory gestures for the anniversary: the regime honored 134 cederistas through Presidential Decree 1284, signed on the 3rd of this month and published in the Official Gazette 20 days later, while the national coordinator Gerardo Hernández Nordelo promotes initiatives like "My Neighborhood for the Homeland" in an attempt to revitalize the structure.
For López Hernández, none of those initiatives address the root of the problem. "Acts like those at the Sauto Theatre [...] attempt to present an image of revolutionary traditions preserved over time; however, they are activities that unfold like a ritual, with the presence of leaders disconnected from reality and unaware of the people's suffering," he wrote.
And he concluded with a phrase that sums up his diagnosis: "These leaders are the last bastion of what once was the Cuban revolution and its Committees for Defense. They truly reinvent themselves every day."
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