The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a Monday briefing that Cuba's communist regime is actively trying to interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, not only to influence the presidential vote, but also to influence local and domestic parents. They warned that they were trying to support communist candidates. parliamentary elections.
“Havana is almost certainly considering influence efforts to target some candidates,” said an anonymous ODNI official. said reporters. “Havana may be trying to win support from parliament and local politicians that it believes will support the policies it favors, as it has in previous cycles.”
“Havana has placed great emphasis on several policy issues that it believes are harming the regime, particularly the U.S. embargo on Cuba and other economic and travel restrictions, all of which Havana believes are detrimental to the regime. We recognize that this is an effort to enforce the law,” the official continued. .
For decades, the Castro government has railed against a series of restrictions commonly known as the U.S. economic “embargo.” calmly Restrict economic activity between the two countries. The embargo does not prevent humanitarian aid, food, or medicine from entering the country. America belongs to Cuba maximum For example, chicken suppliers. But the embargo prohibits major U.S. travel and technology companies from interacting directly with the violent communist regime that lasted more than half a century, and curbs some tourism industries, among others. It does little to deter Americans from visiting the island. Cubans face significant restrictions on their freedom of travel directly imposed by the Communist Party, particularly with respect to travel to the United States.
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Despite the relatively small impact of the embargo on Cuba's international trade, the Castro regime has ensured that leaders running a government known as a state sponsor of terrorism have access to vast markets in the United States and a lavish lifestyle. It regularly requests that the embargo be lifted so that funds can be provided. They also regularly engage with and agitate on behalf of leftists and communist sympathizers in the United States.
ODNI listed Cuba, along with Russia and China, as countries that “support or denigrate candidates involved in parliamentary, state, or local elections.” Officials suggested that Florida's local races were particularly susceptible to Cuban influence.
“The City of Havana considers election influence operations to be part of its permanent requirement to influence these policies, and the state of Florida is a prime target for its operations,” one official said. Ta. “To that end, we have observed Cuba adjusting its influence efforts based on its perception of candidates' positions on policy toward Cuba. For example, in 2020, Havana targeted certain candidates in Florida. It was intended to be defamatory and to impose an influential narrative on the Latin American community in the United States.”
The independent news outlet, citing a more detailed ODNI report on election interference, said: Cubanet According to a report on Tuesday, the US government agency said Cuba was “not the first to become aware of these intentions, but the current situation allows them to intensify their efforts.” In addition to contacting sympathetic candidates, ODNI suggested that Cuba is bombarding the American public with a “disinformation” campaign that supports communist policies.
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“Disinformation is a powerful tool used to create distrust in our electoral system and increase internal divisions in the United States,” one ODNI official was quoted as saying.
The Cuban government has openly interfered in American politics over the past year. grandmaThe newspaper, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, regularly attacks actions taken by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to limit the regime's windfall gains during his first term as president. In April, grandma published an angry article criticizing President Trump for promising voters that he would place significant limits on funding for his administration.
“The Trump administration placed particular emphasis on cutting off major sources of revenue and undermining trade relations with the rest of the world.” grandma complainedOne of the main complaints is that President Trump has allowed Cuba to sue in U.S. courts for Americans whose property was stolen in the 1959 coup that brought Fidel Castro to power. It is listed in
The regime is also more directly involved in US politics by supporting US communists. For example, in September several senior Communist Party officials were allowed to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, where they took part in meetings with radical left-wing agitators. local community. The officials were reportedly invited by a “progressive” radio station known as “Radio Free Georgia.” This is a play on a series of anti-communist broadcasts used by the US government during the Cold War.
The Atlanta chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) proudly shared photos of the meeting, saying its members were “honored” to meet the oppressive communists.
That same month, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Cuban communist officials held an event aimed at forging closer ties between the regime and Cubans abroad, primarily Cubans who had fled the regime. played a role in encouraging funding.
“The interests of the same people [Cubans abroad] Participation in the country's economic development and expanding business opportunities in Cuba were also discussed,'' the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) said in a reading of the event.
More indirectly, the Cuban regime has used free American social media in the past to spread communist propaganda through automated accounts. In 2018, the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a Florida-based human rights organization, documented the existence of dozens of Twitter accounts with ties to the communist regime, spreading propaganda posing as ordinary Cubans who love the government. In fact, many of the accounts used stock photos of young people or photos of foreign celebrities. Following a Breitbart News investigation, Twitter shut down many accounts.
