Most of the residents are over 60 years old, and apathy reigns
14ymedio, Havana, 27 September 2024 — While the notes of an untuned violin mistreated the Bayamo anthem, a dirty lightbulb illuminated the flag, some papers and a desk in the middle of the street. It was the first accountability assembly in a neighborhood of Cojímar and the premiere of a nervous Francisco Rodríguez Cruz – a journalist in the personal circle of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and First Lady Lis Cuesta – as the delegate. What was intended to be a manifestation of revolutionary stoicism ended up having pathetic overtones.
Known as Paquito de Cuba, the gay activist who defines himself as “troubled but happy” was the laughing stock of his own neighbors, who recorded and published a scene that has been repeated dozens of times this week: that of the leader who, in the midst of a dense blackout, tries to “comply” with the “orientation” of holding the assembly.
The energy debacle has been the worst enemy of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), determined to demonstrate their usefulness by organizing accountability assemblies in each neighborhood of the Island. The other has been the shortages. In a country where “donating a head of garlic is now like giving part of your liver” – in the words of a resident of Luyanó – the future will be black for the traditional stews, every year more meager and watered-down, for the celebration of CDR day, September 28.
“Yesterday we peeked out in the middle of the blackout and saw a group of people gathered under a lightbulb,” a woman tells 14ymedio. “We hadn’t even heard about the assembly. There was a flag on the door of a house, and people say that they will be collecting money in the neighborhood. But here no one is going to pay anything, and the person who comes asking will be made to feel like a fool.”
“Yesterday we peeked out in the middle of the blackout and saw a group of people gathered under a lightbulb,” says a woman
Things have changed, she adds, and apathy is widespread. “There is no movement of anything anywhere. Before, every September 27th, people started from 6:00 pm to prepare the firewood for the stew, if only for the food and the party. That’s over.”
The official press has been projecting a panorama of enthusiasm and kindness in the neighborhoods for days. They allude to the CDR as an institution that “comforts and commits,” and describe the environment of the neighborhoods – increasingly violent, hit by the increase in drugs and police inaction – as a place where “your best brother is the closest neighbor.”
In Nuevo Vedado, Havana, the accountability assemblies have also taken place with little attendance and many complaints. In one of the tall buildings that characterize the neighborhood, on Wednesday night a handful of neighbors, mostly over 60 years old, met to listen to the long report of the constituency’s delegate, who read a litany of complaints and problems suffered by the neighborhood.
The attendees’ participation focused mainly on inflation and the loss of purchasing power that families have suffered. “With my pension I can barely get by; if it weren’t for the fact that my children are still here, I don’t know what would become of me,” lamented a 90-year-old, who had participated in the construction of the building through the system of microbrigades.
Others complained that on the outskirts of the premises managed by the Youth Labor Army (EJT) on nearby Tulipán Street, a “Carthaginian market” has been created where everything is sold, but “it is not controlled and does not sell at the capped prices,” argued a resident. “There are now more goods being sold from the door outside the EJT than on the shelves inside.”
Outside the well-known market, for years there has been a network of informal merchants, who offer everything from cigarettes to strings of onion. “They are not the problem, but the result of the problem, because if you want to buy garlic, detergent, toothpaste or a bag to carry the food they sell inside, you have to end up going to those sellers,” explained another of the participants in the assembly.
One of the residents questioned the State investments that have been made nearby
One of the residents questioned the State investments that have been made nearby, which have not borne fruit or begun operating despite all the resources used. The man pointed to a new bank office, with two ATMs, which was going to be located on Estancia and Conill streets and which, after weeks of work by the builders, has been paralyzed.
In a similar situation, the attendee argued, “there is the Cadeca (Exchange House) that they started building on Tulipán Street, even with a bathroom for the employees. Today the ATMs work when they have money, but nothing else. The Youth Club at Estancia and Santa Ana received special mention, subject to a remodeling a few years ago and converted into a place that barely provides service due to the deterioration of its computers. A woman added that the Youth Club was in the process of “becoming a market for a private enterprise.”
The meeting was finalized by the sector chief of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) of the area who was categorical: “I’m the only police officer working in this neighborhood where there should be eight of us.” The uniformed man said that “most of the crimes of robbery and theft committed in this area are carried out by people who reside in Cerro,” a poorer neighborhood barely separated from Nuevo Vedado by Rancho Boyeros Avenue.
A little later, under a a burned-out light bulb, the delegate said his final words, and the participants returned to their apartments. Most had not even opened their mouths during the minutes that the accountability assembly lasted.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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