Leftist groups are planning to bring 150 people from the United States to Cuba to celebrate the late dictator Fidel Castro‘s 100th birthday.
The U.S.-based National Network on Cuba and the Venceremos Brigade will bring the cohort to Cuba for two weeks in August to “meet revolutionary heroes,” “engage in solidarity labor,” and “deliver material aid,” according to the groups’ websites. The “Centenary of Fidel Brigade” aims to defy President Donald Trump’s pressure on the communist regime, which has included economic and national security sanctions, a May indictment targeting Castro’s living brother, and Trump threatening a “friendly takeover” of the island.
“The U.S. is waging an all-out assault on Cuba. … The same revolution that sends medical brigades across the globe and stands with Palestine refuses to break,” the NNOC’s announcement reads. “If Cuba can hold the line, we can show up for Cuba.”
Participants will learn about “about Cuba’s fight against the [economic] blockade, its campaign to eliminate racism, and its internationalist medical missions,” according to the NNOC. The organization was also involved in the high-profile March “convoy” that brought leftist influencer Hasan Piker, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) daughter, and the Democratic Socialists of America to Cuba.
The NNOC organizes trips with the regime-linked Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, also known as ICAP, an entity Castro created to propagandize outsiders. The Venceremos Brigade receives fiscal sponsorship from the New York-based leftist group People’s Forum, according to its website. The Brigade gained prominence in prior years after reports surfaced that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass organized for the group in the 1970s.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioned ICAP and its affiliated travel agency, Amistur Cuba SA, in early June. ICAP’s president is former U.S. prisoner and convicted Cuban spy Fernando Gonzalez Llort.
“For nearly seven decades, the Communist Cuban regime has waged a continuous campaign of political, ideological, and institutional warfare against the United States,” Rubio said when announcing the ICAP sanctions. “Tragically, the Cuban people are the hostages of a brutal and repressive government which disregards their safety and prosperity to advance the Castro regime’s true purpose: serving as an outpost for our adversaries and exporting radical left-wing violence and terror across our hemisphere.”