Havana/The National Revolutionary Police published this Wednesday on social networks a call aimed at young people between 18 and 35 years old to prepare as officers through a six-month basic police training course and another eleven-month high school level course. The program promises to graduate them, through this express training, with the rank of second lieutenant and also grant them direct access to the Bachelor’s Degree in Law at Police university campuses, without the need to take an entrance exam.
The reactions on social networks were immediate. “How things have changed, 15 years ago I went through a lot of work to reach the second rank of non-commissioned officer due to good behavior, but hey, I wish success to the new ones,” commented user Yanet Rivas in the official Facebook publication. The call also generated much more critical reactions, such as that of user Luciana de Lara: “I’m not even a police officer, because they go through the same jobs as the people and they can’t say anything.”
As the magazine points out Cuba x Cuba giving an example of a call similar published in 1990 by the newspaper Rebel Youthat that time police training lasted two years and was structured in two stages, a first year of common core and a second year of specialty.
The relaxation of the requirements to enter the Police shows the lack of demand to belong to the main repressive body of the regime, which is combined with the decrease in the population. For more than four years, after the repression unleashed by the July 11 demonstrations throughout the country, there has been a mass exodus of young people of working age. According to a study from the independent demographer Juan Carlos Albizu Campos, the population of the Island has decreased by 24% in just four years.
The bad image of the body due to the arbitrariness of its actions and the ignorance of its members is not negligible either.
The poor image of the body due to the arbitrariness of its actions and the ignorance of its members is not negligible either. It is well known that in Havana most police officersor “smurfs”, as they are colloquially called, are young people, generally of limited resources, who arrive from the East, often without even knowing the capital.
On January 28, for example, in the midst of this escalation of repression against activists and independent journalists, Yoani Sánchez, director of this newspaperwas arrested in the middle of the street by a young man dressed in civilian clothes, no more than 25 years old, who did not know how to tell his fellow police officers the direction he was in when requesting reinforcements.
In the midst of the deep structural and energy crisis in which the country is mired, the urgency to expand the police force in an accelerated manner is striking.This Thursday, at a press conferenceDíaz-Canel affirmed that the country is preparing for a “wartime” scenario, by ensuring that the entire defensive system and State institutions are ready for an alleged attempt at aggression, and by announcing political mobilization plans and communication conceived for that context. According to a report published this Thursday by Prisoners Defenders, the Island is currently beating the historical record of political prisonerswith 1,207 in total, of which 18 have been arrested so far in 2026 alone.
