Cuba: Maintaining the Revolution Block by Block, with a File on Every Citizen

In one of those confusions so common in children, I thought for years that the logo of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution was an enormous eye carrying a machete. As I was unaware of the origin of this aggressive iconography, I saw it as an indiscreet pupil, watching me on every block. Some time later, a friend clarified that what I saw as a cornea and an iris was just a sombrero seen from above. Despite his kind remark, I continued to feel the weight of that look every time I passed in front of a sign with the acronym CDR.

The seventh congress of this organization is now underway, with its more than seven million members, of whom a good number have not been consulted about joining its ranks. You are enrolled in the Committee completely automatically, the same way we women are included in the Federation of Cuban Women and the children are entered into the ranks of the Pioneers. Rarely does anyone publicly refuse to be part of these groups which, in Cuba today, are more formal and bureaucratic than effective.

My confusion between an eye and a hat showed a touch of childish delirium, but also a strong nose for danger. I learned that within the doors bearing the alarming slogan, "Always Vigilant," lived the most adroit editors of reports to denounce other neighbors. I also knew those who, because of a false report--a stroke of the pen from the committee president--lost a promotion, a trip, or the chance to have a new home. I even knew someone who wore the title, "Vice President of the CDR," who was also the biggest criminal in the neighborhood.

In the Palace of Conventions, the pupil with the machete is holding a new conference. I sense that what was once a many-eyed Argus is today a Cyclops with cataracts, a vigilant body that can barely see all the mischief we get up to.

(This post can be read on Yoani's Blog, Generation Y. The English translation is here.)

Translator's note:
Cuba's network of Committees for the Defense of the Revolution was formed in 1960. Out of a total population of about 11 million, its more than 7 million members represent the vast majority of Cuba's adult population. The CDRs keep files on each resident of their respective blocks.

Comments

[ReneGdP]

I'm not sure about North Korea, but I believe Cuba is the last country on earth where people don't leave, they escape. The facts about Cuba are plain to see and there is no point arguing with anyone who can rationalize the dictatorship's abuses and lend their support to their totalitarian stranglehold on all of society.
In the end, Cuba's fate is in the hands of the Cuban people, both those on the island and the more than two million spread out all over the world. Nobody else really gives a damn about Cuba, with a few notable exceptions like Vaclav Havel. Both right wingers and left wingers use Cuba to promote their own agendas and pander to their bases, not just here in the U.S., but around the world.

[mattheweste]

Anti-communist propaganda.

If you want to know the truth about Cuba don't ever listen to the American government or their dissident assets. The two countries are at war. That makes Yoani Sanchez the equivalent of Tokyo Rose or Lord HeeHaw. The big difference is that those two propagandists didn't have the freedom to operate from the country they attacked. Indeed it is a testimony to Cuba's free speech record that she is not arrested as a traitor to her country. Possibly she doesn't accept US government money directly -- that's the basis that other US assets have been judged guilty of treason and arrested in Cuba.

At any rate she's a liar.

Why do people believe that everywhere has secret police with a file on everyone? Even the US secret police don't have the resources for that yet.

[RightWingMarine]

did you notice the people putting out to sea in homemade boats with the general idea that that wanted to float north? That the risk of death from being lost at sea is a acceptable risk when weighed against the cost of continuing to live in the workers paradise.

[RoloTomassi]

I see that you've posted since my last reply, but you chose not to address the questions I posed.

You acknowledge your rightwing political views in your screen name; it is my obervation that rightwingers would much rather stick to talking points rather than dig deeper into the issue.

Whatever validity may exist in your views, they are shallow and do not address all relative questions related to the subject. Pro-Capitalist/Pseudo-democratic sloganeering does not address whatever VALUE might exist within Cuban government and society.

To dismiss it as valueless is a mistake, and one often made by the Right in regards to any nation or policy that does not meet a NeoConservative political or NeoLiberal economic agenda.

[Sick boy]

They do have a secret police they might not have a file on everyone. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about people ratting other people out. It's about the government creating paranoia. It's about how neighbors don't trust neighbors. Do you realize what that does to a country? What it does for interpersonal relationships? For people who want to assemble and speak their minds?

I love how you can just throw it out there that she's a liar... I'm impressed that you can tell this just by reading her post on the internet. You seem pretty sure she's accepting money from the US, I'd love to see anyone who can back that up. It's really easy to judge from being our keyboards from miles away. But we should all walk a mile in someones shoes before shooting our mouths off.

The only reason she isn't in jail is that she's an international figure now and Cuba would make her a martyr by arresting her. It would just galvanize the dissident movement if they did.

[RightWingMarine]

sure they live under a repressive regime and have no rights and yeah thousands have risked their lives or even died trying to escape. Cuba is such a paradise that people are even willing to risk becoming lost at see and dieing a slow death from hunger, dehydration and exposure, but the health care system there is really great right? Michael Moore wouldn't lie to us would he?

[RoloTomassi]

Certainly no more than you add your rightwing spin....

And btw, "see" should be sea, and "dieing" should be dying...just in case you're interested.

[RightWingMarine]

I'll confess my spelling isn't always that great but you understood my point.

I don't know how much of a spin can be put on a society that is so delightful that the people are will to risk an agonizing death to get away from it.