It doesn't get a lot of press attention, but then much of the most corrupt actions of the left don't. Cuba isn't exactly what one would label a 'stable' country. Not economically, not politically, not socially or culturally. Cuba has lived under a dictatorship for the last 74 years, since General Bautista seized power in a military coup. Dictatorships aren't exactly known for thriving economies, hence alliances with other authoritarian regimes are highly valued.
Soon after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro turned to Moscow to counter U.S. pressure. In February 1960, Cuba and the Soviet Union signed their first major trade and economic agreement. For the next three decades, Cuba became a key Soviet satellite state in the Western Hemisphere, relying heavily on Soviet oil, weapons and economic subsidies.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Moscow abruptly cut off its massive subsidies and trade support. This triggered a devastating economic depression in Cuba known as the "Special Period." The economic alliance was revived after Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000. Since then Russia and Cuba have steadily rebuilt their political, economic, and military ties. In 2014, Russia wrote off 90% of Cuba's Soviet-era debt. Russia currently supplies Cuba with oil, agricultural products, and financial backing. Cuba consistently backs Russian foreign policy while Russia opposes the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Today Cuba remains a communist dictatorship. Call it what you will, but bottom line, Russia too is a communist dictatorship. If you don't believe that, just try getting crossways with Vlad Putin.
It's a known fact that Russia interferes in American elections every chance it gets. It's all very clandestine and they're very good at it, and it's not going to end any time soon. But what about Cuba? Not so much as far as interfering in elections, but fanning the flames of leftist radical influence? According to a new report from the U.S. State Department, yes.
The Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples (ICAP), a Cuban intelligence and influence network, maintains social and financial ties with a number of prominent radical left-wing groups in the U.S. from Black Lives Matter to Code Pink, the State Department says in a recently released report. ICAP was founded in 1960 by Fidel Castro and purportedly exists to promote goodwill toward Cuba through a global infrastructure of 'friendship' and 'solidarity' organizations and deep, longstanding ties to U.S. universities, student groups and activist movements, according to the report.
The group's network includes more than 2,000 solidarity organizations across 150 countries. Its expansive outreach is alarming, ICAP is run by Fernando Gonzalez Llort, a Cuban spy who spent 15 years in a U.S. prison after being arrested in Miami as part of the Wasp Network in 1998. Former officers of Cuba's Intelligence Directorate have claimed that about 90% of ICAP staff are affiliated with the Cuban spy agency.
The Cuban regime leverages ICAP's 'solidarity' networks to drive policy, shape activist movements, and maintain a cabal of advocates and agents in the U.S., according to the State Department report.
ICAP works closely with the U.S. based National Network on Cuba (NNOC), a coalition of more than 60 American groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the National Lawyers Guild, Code Pink, and Communist Party USA. While publicly proclaiming a commitment to lobbying for an end to the U.S. embargo, the group actually functions as a key point of contact for coordination between the Cuban regime and the American far left. NNOC works with ICAP to coordinate U.S. delegations to Cuba to hold "solidarity" conferences where American activists meet with Cuban officials to develop strategies for expanding Cuban influence networks in the United States.
NNOC's propaganda has had a particularly profound effect on young Calla Walsh, who at 16 years of age was celebrated by the New York Times as part of an "influential new force in Democratic politics" for her work on the campaigns of Senator Ed Markey (D. Mass) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. Mass). One year later, at 17, she was invited to Cuba. She then visited the country four times between 2022 and 2024.
Her trips to Cuba ultimately led to her introduction to Fergie Chambers, a Marxist organizer and heir to the Cox Communications empire. Walsh met Chambers at a 2022 conference in Cuba. That meeting seemed to solidify her path to extremism. Today, Walsh is a full-time resident of Lebanon who has transgressed from a progressive to a hardened radical who has been placed on a suspicious persons watch list by the U.S. government for her extensive dealings with the governments of Cuba and Iran, as well as countless U.S. designated terrorist groups. She recently appeared in an Iranian state media interview calling the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "the greatest anti-imperialist leader" of her lifetime.
The path to Walsh's radicalization included relationships with several of the groups cited in the report for having close ties to Cuba, including the People's Forum, Code Pink, and the Democratic Socialists of America.
The People's Forum is one of the most significant left-wing protest groups in America. The group has served as a significant force in the protests against Donald Trump and ICE. They have received substantial financial backing, almost $5 million in 2022, a more than 800% increase from the prior year, owing to the political network of Neville Roy Singham. The People's Forum has played a part in organizing numerous protests, from a demonstration in New York City on October 8, 2023, celebrating Hamas attack on Israel as "an unprecedented liberation struggle," to teaming up with the New York chapter of Democratic Socialists of America to recruit almost 4,000 activists to counter ICE enforcement operations in the city.
The Democratic Socialists of America has significantly expanded its relationship with, and support for Cuba. In 2019, the DSA announced plans to formally join NNOC. The DAS has since established its own Cuba Solidarity Working Group, has lobbying and campaign advocates, and has sent several official DSA delegations to Cuba.
In the 1970's, Cuban propaganda turned Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army into the face of U.S. racism, black oppression, and anti-imperialism. Cuban leaders offered Shakur refuge after being convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S.. Shakur escaped prison with the help of an armed group from the BLA and Weather Underground. She fled to Cuba where she lived until her death in 2025.
The State Department's report goes on to identify the National Lawyers Guild as having provided support to thousands of George Floyd rioters, and one of the most consistently relevant organizations in Cuba's U.S. network. In 2020 alone, the NLG claims to have coordinated legal support for more than 20,000 arrested protesters during the George Floyd riots.
The leftist radical ties to Cuba are long-lived and rarely spoken of in the U.S.. Another of the embarrassing faces of the far-left in American politics. Were it not for the support of modern Russia, would Cuba be able to continue this perennial subterfuge?
No comments:
Post a Comment