It wasn't the typical populism and vulgarity that usually adorns the propaganda and events of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). No, for their 64th anniversary, the largest "mass organization" of the Cuban regime reached a new level of absurdity by celebrating the occasion with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" to the CDRs.
Bereft of substance and mired in a moral and intellectual defeat that is driving the regime to its downfall, the organizers of these propagandistic events are struggling. They are unable to create new slogans, bored with the old ones, and resigned to stirring up "revolutionary fervor" with congas and cheap thrills.
Front and center at the event was the national coordinator of the CDRs, former spy turned pot-grower and improvisational singer of "cultivate your little plot," Gerardo Hernández Nordelo. This Sunday, he traveled to eastern Cuba to celebrate the anniversary of the organization he is trying to revitalize, updating the traditional informant culture into cyber combat.
From the Caribe neighborhood in Guantánamo, the watering-can distributor hurriedly made his way to Santiago de Cuba, the province that earned the "privilege" of hosting the 64th-anniversary celebration of the CDRs.
He was received by the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), Beatriz Johnson Urrutia. Not on a rooftop as she usually does when the streets heat up, but right there on the ground.
This September 28th, everything was meticulously planned and timed to welcome Hernández Nordelo, who has been decorated as a "hero" by the regime for his contributions to espionage and the downing of two planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, which resulted in the deaths of four civilians.
As night fell, Hernández Nordelo and Johnson Urrutia arrived at the Chicharrones neighborhood, a suggestively named area, where a "spontaneous" conga greeted them with chants of "long live the CDRs" amid the weary sways of a starving, powerless people ignored by the leaders of a totalitarian and repressive regime.
"A little gift for the haters who always want to see the people in the streets. Chicharrones in Santiago de Cuba is heating up!" the national coordinator of the CDRs posted on his social media, sharing a video of the conga in the darkness. The occasion allowed the coordinator to proudly brandish a Chinese horn.
He then shared another pathetic video, one that induces second-hand embarrassment, where a group of CDR members sings "Happy Birthday" to the decaying organization. Pale, hesitant, and aggressive faces were captured by his camera in a circular pan, presenting more of an image of degradation than celebration.
"The event for the 64th anniversary of the CDRs is over in Santiago de Cuba, but the party continues!" wrote Hernández Nordelo on his social media the next morning, with a video from the car taking him to his next propaganda stronghold, capturing the remnants of another staged conga meant to project an image of perpetual festivity.