American leftists traveled to Cuba to undermine U.S. foreign policy. They made no effort to engage the regime or call for democratic or human rights reforms. Photo courtesy of Cuban News Agency.
A bunch of American liberals, in cooperation with various transnational communist and socialist organizations, set out to “break the U.S. blockade of Cuba.”
They delivered millions to the Cuban regime and never once addressed the fact that citizens have almost no human rights, no protected freedoms, and do not vote in free and fair elections.
The Nuestra América Convoy arrived in Havana on March 21, 2026, and was greeted by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. The convoy, named after an 1891 essay by Cuban writer José Martí, was organized by Progressive International in coordination with a coalition of aligned groups.
The organizing network consisted of hard-left and anti-capitalist organizations, including the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which was designated by the CIA during the Cold War as a Soviet-aligned front organization, and Progressive International, whose published materials endorse socialist central planning and express support for communist revolutionary movements.
It was modeled on the Venceremos Brigade, a Cuba solidarity organization co-founded in 1969 by members of Students for a Democratic Society, the Communist Party USA, and the Black Panther Party, and co-created with Cuban government officials. A 1975 U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee report called it “one of the most extensive and dangerous infiltration operations ever undertaken by a foreign power against the United States.”
A 1976 FBI report documented that Cuba’s intelligence agency, the DGI, used it to recruit Americans it hoped would one day obtain positions inside the U.S. government, providing access to political, economic, and military intelligence.
The convoy’s immediate trigger was Executive Order 14380, signed by President Trump on January 29, imposing an oil blockade on Cuba and threatening sanctions against any country that directly or indirectly supplies oil to Cuba.
Prior to 2026, Cuba had received most of its oil from Venezuela and Mexico.
Following the U.S. intervention in Venezuela, that supply was cut off, and Mexico was threatened with tariffs for continuing to ship oil to Cuba.
Cuba produces approximately 40,000 barrels of oil per day but requires roughly 100,000, leaving a gap that subsidized imports from Venezuela, Russia, and Iran had historically filled.
With those supplies gone, Cuba faced blackouts lasting up to 20 hours per day in some areas, along with shortages of food, fuel, and medicine.
However, it is important to note that when Trump initiated an oil blockade, the country was already experiencing prolonged outages, deteriorating infrastructure, runaway inflation, and widespread shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and other basic goods and services.
The convoy delivered an estimated 20 tons of aid, including food, medicine, solar panels, and bicycles, by air from Europe and Latin America and by sea from Mexico.
The maritime component, including the vessel Granma 2.0 and two sailboats, departed from the ports of Progreso, Yucatán, and Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, on March 19–20. In total, 650 delegates from 33 countries and 120 organizations participated.
Code Pink, one of the convoy’s key organizers, chartered a plane for 100 people and delivered 6,300 pounds of medical supplies valued at $433,000.
However, observers noted that roughly 20 tons of aid is insufficient to meet Cuba’s needs, and the convoy arrived just days before Cuba was expected to receive its first shipment of Russian oil.
Code Pink is estimated to have spent between $50,000 and $150,000 on the plane alone to deliver $433,000 worth of medical supplies, meaning a significant portion of the operation’s cost went toward transporting the activists themselves rather than the aid. Additionally, Code Pink charged each participant $1,600 for the trip to Cuba.
The $433,000 worth of medical supplies were collected by Global Health Partners, a nonprofit. Based on this, it appears that none of the participant fees went directly toward helping the people of Cuba.
Notable participants included former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Irish musical group Kneecap, U.S. labor leader Chris Smalls, Colombian Senator Clara López, and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.
Isra Hirsi, the adult daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), traveled as part of a People’s Forum delegation within the convoy.
The People’s Forum is a communist organization that received $20 million from Neville Roy Singham, a shadowy figure with ties to the Chinese Communist Party who sponsors many of the anti-U.S. protests in the U.S., including pro-Hamas, and “Hands Off Iran.”
Rep. Omar, born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, publicly declared herself “incredibly proud” of her daughter’s participation, calling Hirsi an “unflinching justice warrior.”
Hirsi had previously been suspended from Barnard College over her involvement with an anti-Israel encampment that laid siege to part of the neighboring Columbia University campus in 2024.
The convoy was explicitly organized to challenge established U.S. foreign policy. The embargo is codified in multiple statutes including the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996.
Organizers framed the mission as an effort to “break the siege” and called for it to serve as a catalyst for a broader global movement against U.S. sanctions.
To be clear, Omar, a sitting U.S. lawmaker, praised her daughter for engaging in behavior in support of a foreign government and undermining U.S. foreign policy.
At the welcome ceremony in Havana, attended by Díaz-Canel, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin stated she was “horrified” by what the U.S. government was doing to Cuba.
Speakers from multiple countries criticized U.S. foreign policy and called for continued international opposition to the blockade.
On the ground, the convoy’s activities included concerts, mural painting, meetings with Cuban government officials, and content production for social media audiences.
The Irish rap group Kneecap held a concert in Havana at which the crowd shouted slogans against Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Piker broadcast from inside his hotel room at the five-star Gran Hotel Bristol Meliá Collection, where rooms ranged from approximately $130 to $520 per night, while Cuba experienced a nationwide blackout.
Piker claimed U.S. law required Americans to stay at such hotels, but an X Community Note clarified that U.S. regulations only prohibit Americans from staying at Cuban government-owned properties, not from choosing budget accommodations.
Cuban exile leader Ramón Saúl Sánchez warned before the convoy arrived: “What are they going to do if they give it to the regime? The regime is going to sell it.”
Reuters reported the maritime shipment delivered “14 tons of food, medicine, solar panels, and bicycles to Cuban authorities.” The handover to the government is not disputed.
The Nation confirmed that distribution across the island was coordinated by the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, a government-linked body that CIA documents allege is a front for Cuban intelligence services.
PBS NewsHour, citing AP reporting, stated that international aid to Cuba “is usually distributed free of charge by the state through the network of stores that Cubans use to buy food, except in cases where a donor specifies that a shipment should have a specific destination, such as medicine for hospitals.”
However, this framing is dishonest. Cuba’s rationing system, operated through the libreta de abastecimiento (“supplies booklet”) introduced in 1962, allocates fixed monthly quantities of subsidized goods per household.
Products are sold at subsidized prices, not given free, and citizens can only obtain their allocation at the specific bodega assigned to their registered address.
Citizens pay for goods using the libreta, and the quantities are fixed and cannot be supplemented by earning more; the allocation is determined by household size, not income or need.
The government itself has confirmed that it distributes donations through this system.
Cuba’s Minister of Domestic Trade, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, publicly stated that the ration booklet “continues to be the main mechanism used by the Cuban state to distribute regulated products and international donations to the population.”
This statement confirms that aid is “sold” for ration cards, not given away for free. However, the reality is even worse.
According to WSVN Miami, citing Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca, aid donated to Cuba from Mexico was appearing in the island’s stores and being sold for U.S. dollars.
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