CDR

Subject: Big brother at 40: Cuba's CDR
Date: 10/10/2000
Author: tsll6767

sun-sentinel.com

Big Brother at 40: Cuba's revolutionary neighborhood watch system

By ISABEL GARCIA-ZARZA, Reuters
Web-posted: 11:06 a.m. Oct. 10, 2000

HAVANA -- Hailed by President Fidel Castro as the savior of his revolution but decried by others as a Big Brother spy network, Cuba's neighborhood watch system, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, is marking a 40th anniversary.
"In every neighborhood, Revolution!" reads the CDR slogan on walls and banners in every neighborhood across the Communist-run Caribbean island of 11 million inhabitants.
Created amid the revolutionary fervor of the early years after the fall of dictator Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959, the CDR system aimed to bind neighbors together in a collective and constant task of vigilance against "counterrevolution."
It quickly became the biggest grass-roots structure in Cuba from large cities to rural backwaters and a defining aspect of local society in the last four decades under Castro's rule.
Currently, 8 million Cubans are members of the more than 121,000 individual committees in an organization Castro formally established on Sept. 28, 1960. State media, giving great prominence to the anniversary, said the CDRs had formed "the first trench in the people's fight to confront and denounce anti-Cuban plans."
'THEY SAVED THE REVOLUTION'
Castro himself, in a three-hour speech marking the occasion, told thousands of loyal CDR members -- "Cederistas," as they are known here: "The best work the CDRs have done ... is to have saved the revolution itself."
The CDRs keep a detailed register of each neighborhood's inhabitants, not only listing each occupant by house but also recording such information as academic or work history, spending habits, any potentially suspicious behavior, contact with foreigners and attendance at pro-government meetings.
"The CDRs know exactly who lives in each block, who they are, what they do, if they work or not ... and keep a registry in coordination with the Interior Ministry," Humberto Carrillo, who is in charge of ideology for the CDRs' national committee, told Reuters.
The massive membership of the CDR network is due either to genuine revolutionary conviction or political expediency, according to the testimony of Cubans. When asked why they are members, some fervently back the system, while others complain they have little option if they want to avoid problems.
SOCIAL AID OR 'TOTALITARIAN' PROP?
CDRs' influence over people's lives is shown by the fact that employers normally turn to a committee to check on a job applicant's record. CDRs also play a big social role and even critics admit the system of street vigilance, including night guards, has helped keep crime down in Cuba.
The CDRs also spearhead important social campaigns like vaccinations, aid for single mothers, evacuations during hurricanes and natural disasters, and the recycling of waste materials. And thanks to the CDRs, Cuba has one of the highest blood-donor rates in the world -- more than half a million donations, or one per 19 inhabitants, in the last year.
Despite all that socially useful work, however, there is a palpable lack of enthusiasm for the CDRs among some Cubans, while others, notably dissidents, are more openly critical of the system as a network of busybodies and spies.
"They are only there to control things. They don't sort out any problems, they just keep an eye on who participates in revolutionary activities," said one Havana resident who, like most Cubans when they are being critical about their government, asked to remain anonymous.
Coinciding with the 40th anniversary, Cuba's small and fragmented internal dissident movement, viewed as U.S.-paid "counter- revolutionaries" by the state and thus a prime object of CDR vigilance, denounced the system as "home espionage."
"They represent the defense of Castro, of an arrogant and totalitarian regime. They are not the defense system that the people deserves," said a statement by one tiny opposition group called the July 13 movement.
CDR SYSTEM UNIQUE TO CUBA
The CDR system, which Angola, Nicaragua and other nations once tried to copy without much success, remains a unique characteristic of Castro's style of communism in Cuba.
"The totalitarian system here is very creative," commented wryly prominent local dissident Elizardo Sanchez. "Stalin would never have thought up of something like the CDRs."
Showing once again the remarkable organizational capacity that can mobilize hundreds of thousands in political marches in a matter of hours, or achieve a near 100 percent turnout at local elections, the CDRs held parties across the island last weekend to celebrate their anniversary.
"This is a great party, we'll be here until dawn!" said one enthusiastic Havana resident named Ramiro as he stirred a large pot of "caldosa," a traditional soup that neighbors share in street parties on each Sept. 28 CDR anniversary.
Across Cuba's dilapidated coastal capital, national flags were put up and fires lighted at night in honor of the CDRs. Whether from revolutionary fervor, a desire to be seen or just an excuse for a party, millions of Cubans danced, chatted and heard revolutionary slogans into the night.
"If we see some sort of attack on society or the government, then that is counterrevolution and you have to root it out," CDR member Alberto Gonzalez said of the role of the CDRs over a glass of rum at a street party in central Havana.

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