There was a popular desire for some form of urban-based civil defence against sabotage particularly after the explosion of the French freighter La Coubre while dockworkers unloaded ammunitions from the ship.

The final impetus for the creation of such a movement came on the evening of September 28, 1960 when bomb blasts erupted on the former steps of the Presidential Palace while Fidel Castro gave a speech.

In answer to the imperialist campaigns of aggression, we’re going to set up a system of revolutionary collective vigilance so that everybody will know everybody else on his block, what they do, what relationship they had with the tyranny [the Batista government], what they believe in, what people they meet, what activities they participate in.

Those tasked with vigilance write annotations on citizens, monitoring how often people go to their house and how many attend, their whereabouts, family and work history, how many packages they may be receiving or enforcing curfews.

[citation needed] Lewis Edgewood, a delegate on an official National Education Union visit to Cuba, describes CDR meetings as political block parties.

The CDR play a role in the National Civil Defense by reviewing and updating evacuation plans for their neighbourhoods prior to each hurricane season.

The CDRs also take an active role in vaccination campaigns, blood banks, recycling, practicing evacuations for hurricanes, and supporting the government in its fight against corruption.

[10] A 2006 report from Amnesty International alleged CDR involvement in repeated human rights violations that included verbal as well as physical violence.

[12] Elizardo Sánchez, a Cuban dissident, described the CDR as "a tool for the systematic and mass violation of human rights, for ideological and repressive discrimination.