A federal report describes the Democratic Socialists of America’s expanding political reach, official travel to Cuba and partnerships with organizations linked to Havana as part of a broader network capable of advancing Cuban government interests inside the United States.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The State Department has identified the Democratic Socialists of America as a willing domestic vehicle for Cuban Communist influence, citing the organization’s formal relationships with Cuba-aligned activist groups, direct contacts with government officials in Havana and growing ability to move socialist policies into mainstream American politics.
The findings were included in a report released Monday examining Cuba’s decades-long effort to “make the revolution” in the United States, according to a detailed account of the State Department’s assessment.
Rather than alleging that Cuban officials directly control the DSA, the department presented the organization as an example of how elements of the American far left can independently advance political objectives that closely align with Havana’s interests.
“The DSA has built a national infrastructure dedicated to moving extreme-left politics from the margins into the mainstream – and with it, a deep and abiding devotion to the Cuban regime,” the State Department wrote.
The report said the DSA’s conduct “testifies to the extent to which the native and organic ideological commitments of the American far left now mirror the interests of the Cuban regime” without requiring direct instructions from Cuba.
That distinction places the DSA in a different category from organizations allegedly managed or directed by Cuban intelligence. According to the report, its ideological agreement with Havana allows the group to act as a willing influence channel while maintaining its identity as a domestic American political organization.
The State Department traced the relationship through the DSA’s membership in a Cuba-focused activist coalition, overseas delegations, lobbying campaigns and meetings with high-ranking representatives of the Cuban government.
Those activities have developed alongside the DSA’s expanding role in American elections.
The organization moved into the national political spotlight through the success of candidates running on explicitly socialist platforms. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani became its most prominent elected figure after defeating establishment Democrats and winning the mayoralty.
Earlier this summer, Mamdani also helped several DSA-backed challengers defeat incumbent Democratic members of the House, further increasing the organization’s influence inside the Democratic Party.
As its electoral presence grew, the DSA simultaneously established closer institutional ties to Cuba and organizations supporting the Communist government, the State Department said.
A major step occurred in 2019, when the DSA formally joined the National Network on Cuba, a U.S.-based coalition of left-wing organizations that includes Code Pink, the Communist Party USA and the Socialist Workers Party.
The National Network on Cuba works with the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples, commonly known as ICAP, to organize an annual American delegation to the International May Day Brigade in Cuba.
The State Department sanctioned ICAP in June for “being a political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality of” the Cuban government.
“ICAP is a Cuban organization founded by Fidel Castro in 1960 that supports Cuban intelligence and counterintelligence activities,” the department said in its announcement imposing sanctions on Cuban entities.
The DSA’s membership in the National Network on Cuba therefore connects it to an umbrella organization that works directly with an entity the United States has identified as supporting Cuban intelligence operations.
The State Department said Havana can draw upon this broader collection of American activist organizations to mobilize demonstrations and political pressure when the Cuban government believes its interests are threatened.
Following its decision to join the network in 2019, the DSA placed Cuba at the center of a more organized foreign-policy campaign.
The organization created a Cuba Solidarity Working Group, established dedicated lobbying operations involving Cuba, began dispatching official delegations to the island and increased its public criticism of U.S. policy toward the Communist government.
By November 2020, the DSA was encouraging its approximately 85,000 members to participate in a coordinated campaign with the National Network on Cuba and affiliated organizations.
The DSA described the effort as a movement “against the illegal embargo of Cuba”.
The State Department’s report presented that campaign as part of a larger transition from expressions of ideological support to sustained political organizing on Havana’s behalf.
Official DSA delegations began traveling to Cuba in 2022, according to information published by the organization.
During the first trip, delegates met with Cuban doctors and healthcare providers to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic.
A delegation returned the following year with a more openly political agenda.
The DSA said its representatives traveled to Cuba with the stated “political objective” to “to establish formal channels of communication between various Cuban organizations, ministries and the DSA, as well as normalize relations with representatives of the Cuban government.”
Delegates met with Cuban officials, including Vice Foreign Minister Carlos F. de Cossio, Deputy Minister Adianez Taboada and members of the Civil Defense ministry.
Those officials operate under the direction of Cuba’s armed forces.
The meetings went beyond interactions with healthcare workers or civilian activist groups. Participants acknowledged that the governing Communist Party of Cuba directly hosted the delegation.
Maria Franzblau, a delegate and member of the DSA’s Marxist Reform & Revolution caucus, said the group “met with government ministries and mass organizations” during the visit, according to her account of the trip.
Another delegation participant wrote that members spent more than two hours meeting with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The State Department highlighted those encounters as evidence that the DSA had moved toward institutional engagement with Cuba’s ruling political establishment rather than maintaining only general ideological sympathy for the country.
The relationship has also developed through fundraising efforts supporting the DSA’s international political activities.
The organization solicits contributions for what it calls the Venceremos Fund, which it says supports overseas delegations, visiting international organizers and humanitarian assistance.
“This fund helps to cover necessary expenses that further DSA’s anti-imperialist mission, including DSA delegations abroad, bringing international organizers to the U.S., and direct humanitarian aid to victims of U.S. imperialism,” the organization states on the Venceremos Fund donation page.
The DSA also describes the fundraising effort as supporting “the struggle to dismantle the U.S. empire,” according to the State Department report.
The fund’s name invokes the Venceremos Brigade, an activist organization sympathetic to the Cuban revolution that transported Americans to Cuba during the 1960s and 1970s.
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, along with defectors from Cuba, have identified the brigade as an organization co-opted by Cuban intelligence services.
The modern Venceremos Brigade is primarily financed by the People’s Forum, according to earlier reporting on the organization and its political network.
The People’s Forum is part of a broader collection of activist groups supported by Neville Roy Singham, a wealthy Marxist businessman who resides in Shanghai and has been linked to organizations involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Singham’s financial network has also been tied to Beijing, adding a Chinese dimension to the activist infrastructure examined by the State Department.
The department separately identified the People’s Forum as part of Cuba’s influence network operating inside the United States.
The resulting structure links the DSA to a broader ecosystem of organizations that support Cuba’s Communist government, conduct overseas political delegations and mobilize American activists around causes aligned with Havana.
Some of those connections are formal, including DSA membership in the National Network on Cuba. Others involve shared campaigns, funding relationships or participation in overlapping political networks.
The State Department’s report did not allege that every DSA member knowingly participates in Cuban intelligence activities. Nor did it claim that the organization receives operational orders directly from Havana.
Instead, the department described a movement whose ideological commitments, political organizing and international partnerships make it receptive to Cuban priorities and capable of advancing them without requiring direct control.
That model can provide a foreign government with influence through domestic actors who already support its political system and oppose U.S. policies directed against it.
The DSA’s expanding electoral strength gives the relationship additional significance.
An activist organization with successful candidates, tens of thousands of members and growing influence inside one of America’s major political parties possesses greater ability to shape legislation, public debate and foreign policy than a conventional Cuba solidarity organization.
The State Department said the DSA has built the organizational capacity to bring ideas once confined to the political margins into mainstream institutions.
Its support for Cuba is therefore not limited to demonstrations or statements of solidarity. The organization can promote policy changes through candidates, elected officials, lobbying campaigns and coordination among local chapters.
The report also placed the DSA within Cuba’s wider strategy of cultivating American political organizations that can be mobilized during periods of heightened pressure on Havana.
Such networks could organize demonstrations, lobby lawmakers, oppose sanctions and frame American policy as imperialism when Cuba faces economic, diplomatic or military pressure.
The DSA’s own publications and fundraising appeals openly emphasize opposition to U.S. power and support for international “anti-imperialist” movements.
Its delegations have sought formal communication with Cuban ministries and organizations, while participants have met directly with officials from the ruling Communist Party and the Cuban president.
Those actions, taken together, led the State Department to characterize the organization as a willing channel for Cuban influence rather than merely an American group with favorable opinions about Havana.
The report arrives as the Trump administration increases scrutiny of foreign influence operations conducted through political organizations, advocacy networks and nonprofit groups inside the United States.
It also follows the State Department’s decision to sanction ICAP over its alleged role in supporting Cuban intelligence and counterintelligence activity.
Because the DSA belongs to an American coalition that cooperates annually with ICAP, the sanction places additional attention on the organization’s overseas relationships and domestic campaigns.
The DSA’s political success ensures that the findings will carry implications beyond foreign-policy advocacy.
Its candidates and allies now hold public office, challenge incumbent Democrats and influence debates over housing, policing, taxation, labor and international affairs.
The State Department’s assessment argues that this domestic political growth has occurred alongside a deliberate and increasingly formal alignment with Cuba’s Communist government.
The central concern described in the report is not that Havana created the DSA or dictates its agenda.
It is that a growing American political organization has voluntarily developed the infrastructure, relationships and ideological commitment needed to promote Cuban interests from within the United States.
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