Havana, September 28 (RHC)-- Raúl Castro, Cuban Communist Party’s First Secretary, chaired the closing session of the 9th Congress of the CDRs or Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the island’s largest mass organization.

The congress ratified Carlos Rafael Miranda as National Coordinator, the organization’s highest ranking position.

The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution were established 58 years ago by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, in the middle of acts of sabotage and internal subversion against the young Cuban Revolution.  Operating at block level in Cuban streets and neighborhoods and helping in numerous social tasks, enrollment in these grass-roots committees currently stands at about eight million members.