This weekend, a wave of left-leaning radicals converged in Havana to engage with Communist Party leaders, all while enjoying the comforts of luxury hotels and climate-controlled transportation. Meanwhile, Cuba’s population continues to struggle with a deepening economic crisis that has led to shortages of electricity, food, water, and medicine.
The gathering, dubbed the “Nuestra America Convoy,” attracted socialists from North America and Europe. They traveled by air, land, and sea, ostensibly to deliver 20 tons of humanitarian aid and to protest against the U.S. oil embargo on Cuba.
Among the attendees is Hasan Piker, a close associate of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a well-known streamer. Piker, who recently participated in a propaganda tour in Beijing, broadcasted from Havana to his 1.6 million Instagram followers on Saturday, thanks to a remarkably stable internet connection. He assured them he would create “content” during his stay.
Also present is Isra Hirsi, a 23-year-old activist and daughter of the embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn), as well as a group of Democratic Socialists of America members affiliated with Mamdani.
The convoy features organizations flagged by the U.S. State Department for Chinese influence, including the People’s Forum, led by Neville Roy Singham, and Code Pink, founded by his wife Jodie Evans. Evans was seen smiling in a photo with Piker on Saturday, donning a pink keffiyeh.
Reports indicate that some participants are staying at the opulent Gran Hotel Bristol Meliá Collection, where room rates range from $130 to $520 per night.
Others posed for pictures riding in comfy air-conditioned buses, and meeting with President Miguel Díaz‑Canel at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana.
Cuban officials reported an island-wide blackout this week in the embattled communist nation of some 11 million people, after President Trump in January threatened tariffs on any nation selling it oil, effectively choking off its energy supply.
“While nearly the entire country is suffering from power outages lasting over 20 hours, the left is welcomed with air conditioning and wasteful electricity consumption,” slammed Mayra Dominguez, a Cuban living in exile in the US.
“More than 100 homes wouldn’t be without power today if the Castro regime didn’t spend on communist propaganda with the international left,” Dominguez said.
“This is a gigantic mockery of the entire Cuban people. The left visits Cuba as if it were a party at a zoo and they go to admire the misery from a luxury hotel. It is outrageous,” she added.
The stunt was organized by Cuban politician Mariela Castro through a nonprofit called Progressive International. Few details have been released about how the hundreds of boxes and suitcases of aid will be distributed once they arrive on the island, the local press noted.
Castro is the daughter of Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president who maintains substantial behind-the-scenes influence in the country — and is Fidel Castro’s brother.
One of the organizations involved with the distribution is the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, which has been identified by the CIA as a front for Cuban intelligence services
The convoy has enraged Cuban exiles who are barred by the ruling communist party from ever returning home, and say the government is also to blame for the hardships people have faced for decades.
“After causing more than a million Cubans to leave in just five years and denying many the right to return to their own country, they are now open to a foreign humanitarian expedition,” Cuban artist Salomé García Bacallao, who lives in exile in Miami, blasted on Facebook.
“If they get in, so will we,” she vowed.
After US forces captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in early January, critical oil shipments to Cuba were halted.
Cuba’s president said the island had not received oil shipments in more than three months since.
