Daniela Pastrana / Diario Red
A Breitbart News article, echoed by the State Department, accuses activists like Medea Benjamin and Manolo de los Santos of spreading “leftist agitation in the United States” with the support of the Cuban government; a day earlier, Donald Trump again suggested that the island may have drones from Iran.
The U.S. State Department disseminated a report from Breitbart News, the conservative media outlet of reference for the MAGA movement, which asserts that the department headed by Marco Rubio will soon release a report on the “close ties” between what it calls “the Cuban communist dynasty of Castro” and “the radical left” in the United States.
“The State Department will release a report detailing the Cuban regime’s long-standing campaign to foster left-wing extremism in the United States and internationally,” a State Department official told Breitbart News, adding that “the report concludes that, for nearly seven decades, the Cuban regime has played an indispensable role in virtually every major far-left insurgencies, revolutions, and militant movement in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.”
The report also implicates activists such as Medea Benjamin of Code Pink and Manolo de los Santos, executive director of The People’s Forum and a researcher at the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. This also comes in a week in which Washington has launched an offensive against the International Criminal Court and Trump has accused Cuba, without any evidence, of possessing drones from Iran. It also serves as a prelude to the meeting he is convening on July 16 at the State Department in Washington, focused on what the Trump administration describes as the “resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism.”
Marco Rubio has invited some 60 countries to participate this Thursday in a summit in Washington against what he calls “transnational far-left terrorism.” The meeting, which would follow two previous gatherings on the topic, is part of the Donald Trump administration’s efforts to expand the list of the United States’ “enemies,” according to an analysis by Jim Carson and David Brooks in La Jornada.
The first meeting was held at the end of May in The Hague. It was not a ministerial summit, but rather a meeting of counterterrorism officials and security agencies, convened by the State Department. The Dutch government refused to co-host it, so it ended up being held at the U.S. embassy. Participants were primarily European representatives, and the topic was exactly the same: the supposed resurgence of “far-left terrorism.” According to sources consulted by the Washington Post, which published a report on this new summit last week, the reception was lukewarm, and many participants essentially responded that they did not share the U.S. assessment of the magnitude of the threat.
The second attempt was in early June: a seminar at the U.S. Institute of Peace, aimed primarily at State Department personnel, with the goal of convincing diplomats and officials that “far-left political terrorism” should become a priority of U.S. foreign policy. According to the Washington Post (citing Puck News), the meeting had very low attendance and interest. Even after the event had begun, the organizers sent an email inviting more employees to connect because participation was so low.
But Rubio persisted. In mid-June, the State Department sent a diplomatic cable to more than 20 U.S. embassies (including those in Mexico, Argentina, Italy, and Albania), requesting information about far-left organizations in each country. According to the Washington Post, several embassies responded, but none fully agreed with Washington’s assessment.
The Antifa Hunt
In recent weeks, Trump and Rubio have reiterated their condemnations of communism, a term they use to refer to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and several Democratic legislators, whom they accuse of being supported by immigrants and other foreigners.
“The Trump administration has criminally charged protesters against anti-immigrant measures in various parts of the country with domestic terrorism and recently convinced a court in Texas to hand down extreme prison sentences—including one of 100 years—to protesters who clashed with authorities over anti-immigrant policies, who, according to the administration, were linked to what they call antifa,” reported correspondents for La Jornada.
According to an investigation by the Washington Post, the head of the government’s counterterrorism policy, Sebastian Gorka, has discussed with other officials the possibility of linking Antifa to foreign terrorist organizations.
In September of last year, the White House issued an executive order targeting dissident groups or left-wing activists referred to as part of Antifa, which it designated as a “domestic terrorist organization.” Antifa—short for “antifascist”—is not a centralized organization: it lacks a command structure, a single political leadership, and recognized leaders. It is a decentralized movement that brings together antifascist groups and activists of various political leanings.
Despite this, Washington designated four European organizations as terrorists last November: Antifa Ost in Germany, the Informal Anarchist Federation in Italy, and Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense in Greece. And these organizations are now on par with Al Qaeda or the Sinaloa Cartel in the United States.
The Breitbart version
Breitbart News is positioned as the official media outlet of the Alt-Right, a label that encompasses a diffuse movement of white supremacists and ultranationalists whose most visible figures include Steve Bannon and Richard Spencer.
The publication, republished by the State Department and riddled with accusations and lies against Cuba, asserts that the Cuban government has supported the “spread of Marxist causes” in the United States and “has forged relationships with prominent Democrats and left-wing agitators.” These ties, the text says, “were conspicuously exposed in March, when a coalition of international Marxists organized a ‘freedom convoy to Cuba,’ ostensibly with humanitarian aid for impoverished Cubans.” In reality, the travelers, among whom were members of Code Pink and the popular video game player Hasan Piker, enjoyed an anti-Israel concert and were allegedly caught forcing hungry children to dance in exchange for cookies.
The article highlights the case of Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink, an organization “that supported the ‘Free the Cuban Five’ campaign to free key Wasp Network spies during the 2000s.” It also notes that the organization is funded by billionaire Neville Roy Singham, “founder of Thoughtworks, based in China,” who “was first exposed as one of the main funders of leftist agitation in the United States by investigative journalist and Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer in his 2024 book, Blood Money.”
After the marriage, the publication says, Code Pink “quickly transitioned from a more conventional left-wing pacifist group to an advocate integral and aligned with the People’s Republic of China and other anti-American foreign states.” Furthermore, “Singham’s greatest contributions are believed to have been not to Code Pink, but to a group called the People’s Forum, whose leader, Manolo de los Santos, frequently visits Cuba and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Castro regime.” The People’s Forum was linked to the attack on Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in late April 2024, following the October 7, 2023, massacre of more than 1,000 innocent Israelis at the hands of jihadists.
Before, it was “Iranian drones.”
On Monday, Donald Trump asserted that the United States is investigating whether Cuba is storing military drones supplied by Iran and threatened to act “swiftly” if the information is confirmed. The president made the statement after a reporter asked him if a military intervention against Cuba was still on the table. “If they have them (the drones), we’ll take care of it,” Trump responded.
On May 17, Axios, an agency that disseminates information leaked from US power circles, published that Havana had acquired more than 300 military drones from Russia and Iran since 2023 and that some Cuban commanders had discussed possible attacks on US facilities. However, the same officials cited by Axios stated that the drones were not part of the plan. Axios said they detected no preparations for an imminent attack and the alleged intelligence evidence is classified.
IMAGE CREDIT: Activist Manolo de los Santos in Cuba. Photo @manolo_realengo.
[ SOURCE: www.cubainformacion.tv ]
