Neighbourhood Vigilantes - Cuba

January 2007
Castro may be seriously ill but his autocratic regime shows no signs of relaxing its grip on power. A network of neighbourhood spies ensures 'dangerous subversives' are kept in check.

There are more than 135,000 Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDRs) in Cuba. There main purpose is to ensure that nothing -- or no one -- puts the achievements of the Revolution at risk. "With the help of the CDRs, we know who is who and who does what", explains Ruben Perez, Deputy Manager of the CDRs. Committees can hand out warnings to citizens deemed acting inappropriately. Those who fail to change their behaviour are then imprisoned for up to four years. People can also be imprisoned for moving from one town to another without a visa. When released, political prisoners are constantly monitored. "I am like a prisoner in my own neighbourhood", complains one former prisoner. "I'm afraid to visit anyone because I don't like to complicate anyone's life by my presence". Few people expect life to change soon. "I don't have any illusions about Fidel Castro's death leading to major democratic changes", states one man. "The generation that created this system will still be in power".

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[antfreire]

It is inconceavable that in 2009, fifty years after Castro's Revolution there are still people who can say Viva Fidel. Well, after all, there are also Satan's followers, and Neo Nazis, so it should not surprise anybody.

[bapyou]

"Besides the embargo...we can ...the constant support of guerrilla warfare in South (& Central) America .. (which) takes a lot of resources instead of investing in ... your own people."

& why did/does the US invest in counter wars in all of these places? Could it not use that money also to invest in Americans? Look at Somoza in Nicaragua: Before the revolution, people made $300/yr; tortures, murders, rapes by his National Guardsmen went unpunished. Why would you blame the the revolutionaries?

[azalori]

@ilmhams IBORU IBOLLA IBOSHESHE

[2009mjwb]

this is why government workers in america and the states, make so much more than the average american. the socialists know they will control the millions of government workers and millitary with their paychecks and pensions. all the police and millitary personel that i have talked to, when i ask what they would do if they were ordered to go against the citizens tell me...."i just want to do my job, follow orders, retire and get my pension". we are in trouble.

[elaine31347]

Armored tanks and goosestepping soldiers! Wow! Cuba hasn't yet crawled out from the Soviet prototype...When is this country ever going to find itself??

Wake up people, we are now well into the new milennium...Time to shake off the past and start over in a more organic way than a totalitarian state which is what Cuba is still stuck with.

[TheLivingHermit1]

These are real rebels, not the beret-wearing jokes you see at coffee shops.

[TheLivingHermit1]

@911insidejob81 So did the Empire of Japan and Soviet Russia! Don't leave them out.

[edwardoalvarez22]

@Luiscesarx If you favor Castro then you are a killer, because that's what he is.

[Luiscesarx]

@edwardoalvarez22 NO,NO, WE ARE HUMAN

[edwardoalvarez22]

@Luiscesarx You are a Killer

[Luiscesarx]

NO ME CANSO...VIVA LA REVOLUCION.

[Luiscesarx]

NO ME CANSO... VIVA LA REVOLUCION.