English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
HAVANA, Cuba, July, www.cubanet.org. Cubans know that Fidel Castro’s government, since its inception, violated citizens’ right to privacy of. On September 28, 1960 he founded the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), an organization with fascist roots, whose program is “Everyone spies on each other.” I know — because I worked as a … Continue reading “CDR: The Number of Spies is Not Rationed / Tania Diaz Castro”
A Cuban family from Holguín, desperate because of the precarious state of their home and the lack of any response from the authorities, went to see human rights activists to ask them to help and to provide a report on her case. In the video of Liberal Creole Productions and the Peoples’ Defender of Independent … Continue reading “President of the CDR lives in misery / CID”
Comments on the recent speech by General-President Raul Castro can be heard in a pharmacy line as well as in an almendrón.* People in general are pleased that the country’s top leadership is finally acknowledging the presence of the invasive social weed that until now seems to have been growing unnoticed. Cubans, with our ability to adapt … Continue reading “Why Not Just Dissolve the CDR? / Regina Coyula”
More than half of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) of Havana did not celebrate their 52nd anniversary of September 27-28. This celebration was marked at 90% only in the central and eastern zones of the country. September 27 was celebrated in anticipation of the September 28 day of the 52nd anniversary of the … Continue reading “Havana neighborhoods reject the Cuban government by not celebrating the 52nd anniversary of the CDRs / Anddy Sierra Alvarez”
As has been the trend in recent years, the once nurtured and animated Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) “fiestas” on September 27, have been added to the list of Revolutionary anniversaries on the way to extinction. Just by chance, for personal reasons, I was crossing the city last Thursday and could observe … Continue reading “Where are the CDR Revolutionaries? / Miriam Celaya”
The stew was cooked on firewood collected by some neighbors, the flags hung in the middle of the block and the shouts of Viva! went on past midnight. A ritual repeated with more or less enthusiasm every September 27 throughout the Island. The eve of the 52nd anniversary of the founding of the Committees for … Continue reading “CDR: Citizen Representation or Political Control? / Yoani Sanchez”
On September 28, 1960, while homemade bombs and firecrackers were being detonated by his political opponents, an angry Fidel Castro created the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). From the balcony of the north wing of the Presidential Palace, the guerrilla commander, recently returned from a tour of New York, argued the need … Continue reading “CDR, Castro’s Popular Weapon / Iván García”
Renato’s family emigrated to the United States on October 3 but that did not stop them from having some weak communal soup, drinking cheap rum and dancing the timba on a block of Reparto Sevillano south of Havana on the night of the 27th, the eve of the anniversary of the Committees for the Defense … Continue reading “An Old Castro Weapon Still in Operation / Ivan Garcia”
The official press defends the work of the Family Care System, but the food is far from being the least bit healthy 14ymedio, Havana, 1 October 2024 — If a balanced diet were made up of soup and bread with pasta, the State would not have to use so many resources to justify its precarious … Continue reading “Soup and Bread With Mayonnaise, the ‘Balanced Diet’ That Cuba Guarantees to the Poor”
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 … Continue reading “In Havana’s Accountability Assemblies, the Blackouts Arrive on Time”
Luis Raúl González-Pardo was in command of one of the MiG 29s but did not fire 14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — “Everything, or most of what has been said, is false,” were the last – and almost only – words to a media outlet, Martí Noticias, from the former pilot of the Cuban Armed … Continue reading “The US Has Granted Humanitarian Parole to a Pilot Who Participated in the Downing of the Brothers to the Rescue Planes”
Perhaps not all officials have been perpetrators, but all the abusers acted in the name of a state and political party that have destroyed Cuba and the Cubans 14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 25 August 2024 — If the Cuban state is repressive and led by a single political party, communist, that must mean that the … Continue reading “Cuba: Executioners in a Stampede”
It has been possible because the citizens themselves supported the regime’s arbitrary policies 14ymedio, Karel J. Leyva, Montreal, 4 August 2024 — Domination manifests itself when an agent – whether a person, an institution or the State – has the ability to arbitrarily intervene in the decisions and actions of another, without taking into account … Continue reading “The Cuban Revolution Has Never Been About Emancipation, But Rather Domination”
The regime has taken advantage of our anger to present us as “haters” and to feed the fear of change 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, August 7, 2024 — “Libertad sin ira,” “freedom without anger” [lyrics] is one of the most representative songs of the Spanish transition to democracy. In its lyrics it speaks of … Continue reading “Freedom Without Anger and Without Hatred, for Cuba”
The absence of young people in the activities of Cuba’s Youth Labor Army, EJT, is noticeable 14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 31 July 2024 — A bunk bed with a thin mattress, boots that he had to return when he was demobilized and a uniform that was not olive green were, for months, the main … Continue reading “The Cuban Army Runs Out of Recruits Due to the Exodus and Low Birth Rate”
