Young Cubans spurn roles as revolutionariesAFP, HAVANAIn Cuba, thousands of neighborhood cells set up as the eyes and ears of Fidel Castro’s communist revolution are trying to find ways to lure young people who have little interest in the cause. Cuban Committees for the Defense of the Revolution national coordinator Gerardo Hernandez speaks during an interview in Havana on Tuesday last week. The defense committees are particularly visible during elections, presiding over neighborhood meetings and scrupulously controlling citizens’ participation. Manuel Cuesta Morua is a dissident who faced “acts of repudiation” in the 2000s, when large groups of CDR members would verbally and physically abuse opponents. Every year, on the night of Sept. 27, CDR members get together in their neighborhood for a party around a stew cooked on an open fire.
