American Socialists To Join New Cuba Aid Flotilla Despite Hints of Negotiations Aimed at Ousting Communist Leadership

As President Trump tightens the screws on Cuba’s Communist government, its leadership is winning support from Democratic Socialists in America, who are sending an entourage down to the island nation next week to show solidarity with Cuba’s dictatorial regime. The Democratic Socialists of America announced that 20 DSA members will join an international group of humanitarians, the so-called Nuestra América Convoy, which says it is delivering critical aid to Cuba amid an economic and energy crisis caused by America’s blockade of fuel, flights, and other essential supplies.“We’ll bring much-needed material aid, volunteer our labor in solidarity, and show the world that Cuba is under siege, but they are not alone,” the organization’s X handle announced. Since February, the Democratic Socialists have mounted a “Stop the Siege on Cuba” campaign that claims President Trump’s “brazen imperialism” is “accelerating a humanitarian crisis” for 10 million Cuban people. It has issued an open letter signed by celebrities like Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo, and Susan Sarandon, calling for the administration to “treat Cuba with equality and respect” and “let Cuba live.”“Starving a population into submission is not diplomacy; it is a form of terrorism,” reads the letter. With 89 percent of Cubans reportedly living in poverty, the Communist regime has a chokehold on food and energy distribution. Known for giving preferential treatment to members of the Communist party and military officials, the dictatorship is hoarding cash and food stocks while imprisoning and brutalizing thousands of political opponents. The American government has had a trade embargo on Cuba dating back to the Cold War and Fidel Castro’s rise in 1959. The attempts to isolate Cuba, however, have long been undermined by support for the Caribbean nation from China, Mexico, Russia, and Venezuela, the latter of which supplied most of Cuba’s energy stocks.With the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January, the Trump administration created a new chokehold aimed at initiating the downfall of the communist government. Despite the repression, protests in Cuba against its own leadership have been growing as a result of the increased economic pressure. On Saturday, protesters burned the Communist Party headquarters at the northern city of Morón, Ciego de Ávila, while at Havana, rallies under the cover of night have been ongoing for nine days, with protesters banging on pots and pans in a sign of growing dissent.“What we have seen in recent days, every protest, every cacerolazo in the dark is the voice of the Cuban people saying ‘it’s over,’” a Cuban opposition leader, Rosa María Payá, told Cuban opposition news outlet Martí Noticias, using the idiom “casserole” to refer to the collective action for change. In response to the growing protests, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a longtime ally of Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who took over for his brother in 2008 until his retirement in 2018, said Saturday that “it is understandable that the prolonged blackouts cause distress in our town, as a consequence of the U.S. energy blockade, cruelly intensified in recent months.”He granted that protests may continue as long as “they are carried out with civic responsibility and respect for public order.” However, he added, “the violence and vandalism that threatens citizen tranquility and the security of our institutions” will not be tolerated.On Friday, Mr. Díaz-Canel confirmed that Cuban leaders are negotiating with the Trump administration, talks that the administration has not elaborated on, but a Cuban-American congressman who has long pushed for the overthrow of the regime, Mario Díaz-Balart, said are underway. Mr. Díaz-Balart said the negotiations are focused on the conditions for the communist government to step down and be replaced. Those talks are believed to be led from the Cuban side by Raúl Castro’s grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, said the executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, John Suarez, an indication that Mr. Díaz-Canel “is a puppet president and he’s really not in the inner workings of what the negotiations (are) taking place today.” In comments to NDT Television, Mr. Suarez added that the Cuban president is trying to draw out talks and bide his time until the midterm elections when Democrats may return to the congressional majority. While negotiations could result in some form of Cuba’s current leadership remaining in power, as happened in Venezuela, Cuban exile leaders have said they will not accept anything less than an end to the dictatorship. Mr. Diaz-Balart said he does not believe the outcome in Cuba will involve any concessions.“The conversations are that the regime has to end and that the dictators have to leave,” he told Martí Noticias. “President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio know that it is not acceptable to have a terrorist regime in this hemisphere.”

American Socialists To Join New Cuba Aid Flotilla Despite Hints of Negotiations Aimed at Ousting Communist Leadership

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