Díaz-Canel Calls for Modernized CDRs but Cubans Dismiss the Idea: "Count Me Out"

This week, Miguel Díaz-Canel met with prominent members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) from across the nation to underscore their relevance as the organization approaches its 66th anniversary. The reaction was predictable: as the leader called for "responding with the CDRs needed in these times," ordinary Cubans took to social media to declare, "that's long dead, count me out."

During the event, detailed on the Presidential website on Friday and reported by Canal Caribe today, Díaz-Canel portrayed neighborhoods as "the Revolution's main stage," suggesting that if neighborhoods thrive, so do municipalities, provinces, and the country. This domino logic, however, seems toppled given Cuba's current state.

Although the leader half-heartedly acknowledged a core issue—"Many people think this is an outdated organization, irrelevant in current conditions, offering nothing"—he argued that "the opposite is true," yet failed to clarify how to rejuvenate a neighborhood watch structure founded in 1960, especially as masses emigrate and leadership ages without replacement.

Joining him were Roberto Morales Ojeda, Organization Secretary of the Central Committee, and Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, the national CDR coordinator, who has repeatedly urged for the organization's "revitalization," seemingly to no avail. The regime itself admits the decline: low participation, aging leadership, and youth disinterest are consistent challenges, covered up with new acronyms and parallel movements.

Reviving a Struggling Organization

Initiatives like "My Neighborhood for the Homeland" and the Community Youth Network, led by the Union of Young Communists, serve this purpose. The regime also tasked CDR members with spreading awareness of the 176 Economic and Social Transformations, capitalist-style reforms the Government portrays as bolstering "socialism." Díaz-Canel urged CDR leaders to implement these reforms "block by block."

The official rhetoric emphasized neighborly solidarity, such as reaching out to "the elderly living alone, the retiree who gave everything for the Revolution and now needs support." Ironically, this support is promised in a country plagued by power outages lasting 18 to over 20 hours daily, with an electricity generation shortfall exceeding 2,000 MW, alongside widespread food and medicine shortages affecting all regions. According to Prisoners Defenders, by the end of August this year, Cuba had 1,339 political prisoners.

Public Skepticism and Criticism

Users online didn't miss the irony. One commented, "Stop with the tales, times have changed, motivations have changed, expectations have changed." Another was more blunt: "Scammers." A third sarcastically queried, "Can someone tell me in what country this happens?"

Some pointed to the real elephant in the room, noting "GAESA, the sole monopoly whose assets were largely acquired from the national economy without any compensation." Another concluded with a phrase encapsulating the organization's current state: "That no longer exists, stop the lies, only the dues collection works."

The event was held in anticipation of the CDR's 66th anniversary, observed next Monday, September 28. The regime awarded 134 CDR members this week under Presidential Decree 1284, signed by Díaz-Canel earlier this month. The main anniversary celebration is planned in Matanzas, designated as the National Vanguard in the organization's emulation for 2026.

This year’s official celebration is tied to the Centennial of Fidel Castro's birth, who established the CDRs on September 28, 1960, as a network for neighborhood surveillance and denunciation.