POWER IN CUBA traders. The CDR have been reduced to mere appendages of the «Seguridadl> or National Police Force ... , (12). And Herbert Matthews writing five years Iater in 1975, states flatly that the CDR is now completely « ... under the control of the Communist Party. . . Besides spylng, the CDR also performs certain functions such as helping to organize vaccinations for polio, diphteria and measles, sees to lt that parents send their children to school, that food and other rations are fairly handled, etc ... , {13). The CDR 1s actually a vast, intricate network reaching into every neighborhood, every home and even into the personal life of every man, woman and child in Cuba. The following verbatim conversation with a native Cuban tells more about the operations of the Cuban Police State and the total obliteration of individual freedom than any number of abstract academic dissertations or statistical tables: « ... I ran into a hurricane of a woman named Mrs. S. The famous literacy campaign, she stormed, «was indoctrination,, there was no dissent. . . it was like a new dark age in Cuba. These spies of the CDR know who visits me and whom I visit ... Under Mr. Castro, it is suddenly my neighbor's duty to know how I live. Everybody knows that in a civilized éountry, your home is your fortress ... here ln Cuba, every jackass 1s knocking on your door to give you ad vice on who is dangerous. . . they want to take Iock off my front door. . . You think I exaggerate? Well, you do'nt live here. . . Our deepest need is to be our ownselves, different, non-conformlst ... my motto is «leave people alone, . . . it is intolerable to have only one power in the State. . . even rlghteous power. . . because human belngs have a perverse desire to say NO... even to righteousness, to disagree ... , [A medlcal student told the vlsitor] « ... We ail know who are the self-appointed spies. Go and talk to Mrs. Blanco ... , [the visitor quotes her]: « ... yes, I know what everybody says about me, but I have to see that people do not do certain thtngs -like being absent from work. No absenteeism on this block .. ·" [An absentee who claimed sickness, «stress, be called it, · was actually visiting bis girl fI'iend -unbeknown to his wlfe. When Mrs. Blanco threatened to expose him to bis wlfe] « . . . he was all rlght for two days, r cbecked with bis work place -two days, and tbem, more 4Stress, ... be was bungry (12) Karol, ibid., p. 457. (13) Matthew&, ibid., p. 15. 53
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