Trump administration attacks US left, alleging Cuba ties: Key takeaways

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that the Trump administration has issued a 100-page State Department document alleging that Cuba functions as a key ideological link in a global anti-American network and has influence over left-wing politics in the United States. Released on Monday and reported by Al Jazeera on July 21, 2026, the report portrays Havana’s communist government as seeking to undermine the US from within, using Cold War-style language and often relying on ideological overlap or indirect associations rather than documented operational ties.

The report names groups including the Democratic Socialists of America and Code Pink. It acknowledges that the DSA is not a Cuban asset, but argues that parts of the American far left increasingly align with Cuban government interests. Code Pink, which recently joined a humanitarian delegation to Cuba, rejected the framing. Cofounder Medea Benjamin told Al Jazeera the group would not be intimidated and compared the accusations to McCarthy-era tactics.

The document also cites Assata Shakur, the Black liberation activist convicted in the 1977 killing of a New Jersey police officer who later received asylum in Cuba, as an example of what it calls Cuban influence in US activist circles. It mentions politicians who praised Shakur after her death, including Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and says New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to denounce a DSA tribute while campaigning in 2025.

Al Jazeera also interviewed Antoni Kapcia, an emeritus professor of Latin American history, whose work was cited in the report. He disputed the administration’s interpretation, saying Cuban support for foreign leftist movements was mainly a 1960s policy and calling the claim of current sponsorship of US groups unfounded. The article frames the report as part of a broader hardening of Washington’s Cuba policy.