English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
HAVANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org – In the same way that a blind woman with scales is an allegory of justice and a skeleton with a scythe is the allegory of death, the image that identifies the CDR should be the allegory of betrayal. The creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in … Continue reading “CDR: Symbol of Snitching / Julio Cesar Alvarez”
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”
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguin, 16 April 2025 — On the shoulders of the Cuban patient lies not only the responsibility to get syringes and drugs before surgery. Now, more and more often, carrying a blood donation is a prerequisite for undergoing an operation. In Holguín, those who do not have someone who, for friendship or … Continue reading ““In Cuban Hospitals, if You Don’t Donate Blood They Won’t Operate on You””
14ymedio, Madrid, 16 April 2025 — The televised war on crime offered its second part yesterday on State TV’s Round Table program. The authorities were very satisfied to have detected a multitude of illegalities, theft of electrical power and transportation of merchandise “mainly related to the trafficking of food, medicines, weapons, fuel, cash and other … Continue reading “To Rob Warehouses Criminals in Cuba Take Advantage of the Indolence of the Guards”
The 132-apartment colossus was a symbol of modernity when it opened in 1967 on Havana’s seafront 14ymedio, Pedro Espinosa, Havana, 2 December 2024 — With ocean views and one of the best locations Havana’s Vedado district — the luxurious Grand Aston hotel sits beside it — the Girón Building might seem like a dream home. … Continue reading “With No Elevators Serving Its Seventeen Floors, the Girón Building Has Become a Prison for Its Occupants”
The State calls for severe penalties for vandals and punishment for citizens who do not report them 14ymedio, Havana, November 2, 2024 — The official press called this Saturday for “strong measures” against the protagonists of “more than 30 acts of vandalism so far this year” at the Etecsa facilities in Santiago de Cuba. The … Continue reading “Cuban Telephone Monopoly Etecsa Attributes the Multiple Deficiencies in Its Services to ‘Crime’ in Santiago de Cuba”
Iván García, 26 August 2024 — Three years ago, in the summer of 2021, just a month after thousands of Cubans took to the streets to shout for freedom, the grey-haired ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, handpicked by dictator Raúl Castro to run the country, authorised the opening of small and medium-sized businesses on the island. It … Continue reading “The Private Sector in Cuba Up Against the Wall / Iván García”
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”
