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The Cuban regime has initiated a national consultation in educational centers regarding the draft of the Code of Childhood, Adolescence, and Youth.
Under the guise of guaranteeing rights and promoting the comprehensive development of minors, the regulations could become a new tool for ideological indoctrination and selective repression against opposing families.
On the occasion of the 64th anniversary of the José Martí Pioneer Organization (OPJM), the government has orchestrated what it describes as a "participatory exercise" in schools across the country. Children from different educational levels have been led to express opinions on a legal text whose essence, according to official statements, reflects "revolutionary values" and the thoughts of figures such as Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara.
The official publications depict festive and enthusiastic scenes where children express gratitude for the opportunity to be heard. However, behind that narrative lies a deeper framework: the systematic use of the educational system as a means to shape citizens subordinate to state ideology.
Already in December 2024, the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel made it clear that the new Code should "prepare our children, adolescents, and youth to develop all their capacities in favor of the Revolution".
This formulation, more than a policy on rights, reveals a strategy of ideological training, in line with decades of control over children's and youth's thinking on the island.
The draft of the Code includes openly ideological formulations. In its preamble, it states that it seeks to shape minors as "continuators of the revolutionary work". It also establishes, in its Article 57, that education must be governed by the “principles of socialist society”.
Other articles, such as 117 and 219, impose explicit duties on children and young people to respect the authorities, honor the Homeland, and “defend the socialist Homeland”, introducing a framework of civic loyalty that can be interpreted and applied politically.
Even more concerning is Article 91, which requires anyone to report situations that affect the "morality" of minors, an ambiguous clause that could be used against parents with dissenting behaviors or viewpoints.
Furthermore, a state monitoring system is anticipated that involves the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of the Interior, which facilitates institutional oversight over family environments, even in the absence of evidence of physical abuse or neglect.
These provisions, far from being limited to the protection of rights, create a regulatory context conducive to the discretionary use of the law as a tool for ideological punishment or social discipline, particularly against those who do not align with the official narrative.
Concerns extend beyond the doctrinal component. Several documented instances reported by independent media and human rights organizations raise alarms about the use of the legal apparatus to pressure or punish dissenting parents.
In that regard, activists have reported threats related to the loss of custody of their children as retaliation for their political opinions or public actions of denunciation.
In March 2024, State Security allegedly threatened the wife of a political prisoner with taking away custody of her children if she continued to report abuses. Similar cases have been reported in previous years, where the status of being a mother or father was used as a means of political coercion.
With the enactment of the new Code, regulations that seemingly aim to protect minors could be used to monitor, sanction, or intervene in family units that are deemed uncomfortable for the regime.
The language used in the draft —“education in revolutionary values,” “defense of the Homeland,” “patriotic civic education”—, along with the precedent of its selective application, creates a legal framework prone to abuse.
The code will also establish new systems for institutional control and monitoring, as Díaz-Canel indicated, although a referendum has been ruled out, unlike what happened with the Family Code. This omission reinforces the notion of an approval without democratic checks and balances or a plurality of opinions.
In this context, the consultation exercises in schools—portrayed as a form of participation—reveal their true nature: a symbolic operation to legitimize a legislation already defined by those in power, while simultaneously reinforcing the culture of political loyalty from a young age.
What is presented as a step towards greater protection of Cuban children could, in reality, open the door to a new phase of surveillance, indoctrination, and covert repression under a legal guise.
The instrumentalization of children's rights for political purposes is not new in Cuba, but the Code for Children represents a more dangerous formalization of this practice, especially in an environment where dissent continues to be criminalized and where the legal system often operates in service of power rather than citizens.
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