The Trump administration has released a report alleging ties between left-wing advocacy groups in the US and the Cuban government. The 100-page document portrays Cuba as an ideological threat to the US, citing circumstantial and ideological links between the two.
The report singles out the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the antiwar group Code Pink, claiming they have connections to the Cuban regime. The DSA is accused of promoting 'extreme-left politics' and having a 'deep and abiding devotion' to the Cuban government.
'We are in an era of McCarthyism, where they’re not only labelling groups like us communists and trying to position us as enemies of the state, but also combining that with the efforts to crack down on protests,' said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Code Pink.
The report also mentions the case of Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist who was convicted of killing a police officer in 1973 and fled to Cuba. The State Department claims that Cuba pursued a 'Shakur strategy' to gain influence in left-wing circles and African-American advocacy groups.
Experts have dismissed the report's claims, with one saying it is 'complete nonsense.' Antoni Kapcia, an emeritus professor of Latin American history, stated that his argument was that anti-colonialist movements in the Global South were taking a Marxist line in opposition to imperialism, not subverting the US.