Hernández proposes installing security cameras on the blocks to replace the snitches
14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — Former Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez argued on Monday that the organization he coordinates – the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) – is not, as everything seems to indicate, anachronistic. However, fewer and fewer people , especially young people, want to take on leadership positions in the country’s more than 138,000 neighborhoods. “Who takes on the tasks of the committees?” he cried, when interviewed by Bohemia magazine.
“When you approach someone to take up a position on a committee, the answer is usually that after working eight hours there is not enough time to get involved in the organization’s tasks, because they have to cook – not only women, sometimes men too. If you go to a student, they tell you that the university takes up a lot of their time and they can’t get involved in community tasks either,” he explains.
There remain the elders of the neighborhood, old cadres of the CDRs founded by Castro and for whom the ex-spy promises a new splendor. Now 64 years after their foundation, however, the CDRs seem to have lost all function and the ex-spy attempts to recall it: “It is not idle to say that it is a privilege for any country in the world to have on the blocks, in the neighborhoods, an organization that, no matter how many difficulties we have in its functioning – good, regular or bad – offers the facility of being able to pick up a phone to call one of our leaders in any municipality.”
“When you approach someone to take a position on a committee, the answer is usually that after working eight hours there is not enough time to get involved in the tasks of the organization.”
The speaker is a “hero of the Republic of Cuba,” Bohemia reminds readers, and his arguments should be heard at the highest levels. “He does not forget that for many, the time of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution had already passed, because there were no more firecrackers, threats, or aggression, but they were also quite inactive,” comments the magazine.
Hernández is concerned about the networks, where he intends to “not be left behind” in terms of propaganda. It is about “positioning labels,” the more profiles the better, so that the organization can be noticed. The usefulness of the CDRs, in his opinion, was demonstrated during the pandemic, when the presidents of each neighborhood were in charge of distributing the few supplies that the State made available to them. It was the moment, Hernández argues, when he discovered the power of the structure.
In the future, he says, they will be in charge of counting voters or gathering useful information for the Government: “Who knows (how many) members of the CDR no longer live there or have reached the age required to exercise their right to vote? Who can provide information about people who have died or are recently incorporated residents?” The former spy says he has the answer: “The CDR, which facilitates the flow of information and its updating more quickly.”
Hernández enthusiastically claims that he will succeed in increasing blood donations and will take charge – with multiple tours around the country – of engaging those who are reluctant. He has already prepared the logo for his “campaign,” the “allegorical song” and a detailed list of activities.
He has his sights set on foreign organizations, such as the Nou Barris Cuba Solidarity Brigade, to whom he has just given a prize: a ceramic sculpture by Lázaro Valdés, known as Matacochino. “For three decades, in good times, bad times and regular times, this Barcelona brigade has been with us, with our colleague Maruja Ruiz at the helm,” he says. The 38 prizes he has awarded so far are 38 potential foreign allies who will help, he says, the “cleaning and beautification program” of the neighborhoods.
The former spy says he has the answer: “The CDR, which makes it easier for information to flow and be updated more quickly.”
For the moment, the program faces numerous obstacles – the lack of fuel and the excessive accumulation of garbage – which Hernández washes his hands of, although he does not specifically point the finger at either the Municipal Services or the Ministry of Transport: “It is not our responsibility and we are not responsible for collecting the garbage.” In Cuba, there is also a “lack of culture, of dirtiness and carelessness,” he admits
On the other hand, there is urban agriculture, which Hernández wants to implement by reinforcing the always frustrated project “Cultivate your little piece.” Faced with the failure of the initiative, he contrasts the patios and rooftops of the Saavedra family, in Santiago de Cuba. Bohemia illustrates his words with a photo: behind a few flowerbeds, barely planted, a giant face of Fidel Castro and several flags of the CDR stand out. “It is a reference patio,” he celebrates.
Hernández says that with the return of the accountability meetings, postponed since 2021, the CDRs have a new opportunity to prove their usefulness. They will be – he argues – in charge of mobilizing those who do not want to meet. “This is going to be a big challenge,” he predicts
No one should expect immediate improvements in the CDR. After all, he is only committed to implementing changes “in the long term” and stresses that the organization was not handed over to him “in an optimal state.” His problem is, above all, the lack of people who want to be leaders. He does not understand the reluctance. In the meantime, he dreams of security cameras in the blocks to replace the “CDR guards” and more sophisticated neighborhood surveillance systems
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