A video circulating on social media and shared by prominent Latin American journalists appears to show a group of international leftists, believed to form part of the “Nuestra America” pro-regime tour group, making Cuban children dance in the street in exchange for food.
The video, was initially shared by the anti-communist Twitter account@JaviXCubaLibre and widely circulated by Venezuelan journalist Emmanuel Rincón and shared by Cuban-American journalists. Breitbart News could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video, but it surfaced in the context of a visit by the “Nuestra America” group to Havana.
The group features some of the world’s most prominent hardline leftists – including former U.K. Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, former Iranian television host from Spain Pablo Iglesias, and leftist gaming “streamer” Hasan Piker.
The leftists are in the country to protest President Donald Trump’s policies against communism, which they falsely blame for the 67 years of poverty, starvation, lack of access to medical care, torture, beatings, executions, and other abuses committed by the ruling Castro dynasty. The leftists claim to be “bringing critical humanitarian aid” to Cuba, but the content its members have posted online since arriving primarily features them partying at a concert by leftist Irish rap group Kneecap, painting murals on Havana’s collapsing buildings, or bragging about partying on the streets of the capital.
The video allegedly showing foreign leftists abusing children that is circulating features commentary from a man with a clear Cuban accent calling the display a “lack of respect” to the Cuban people.
“That is lack of respect – look at that man with a cookie in his hand, making children dance to give them the cookie, that’s a lack of respect. Taking advantage of Cuban misery,” the man laments.
Journalists have not at press time confirmed the date that the video was filmed or who was participating in the cookie dance. A tent near the event appears to feature labels associated with the “Nuestra America” convoy.
The visit by wealthy international leftists has prompted widespread outrage among Cubans who have endured the suffering and oppression caused by Fidel Castro and his cronies for over half a century. Cuban dissidents accused the group of “racism” and treating the island as a “theme park” to pretend to experience socialism while living in luxury. Cubans on the island have reported that the VIPs are staying in one of the most luxurious lodgings in Havana, a hotel owned by the Spanish company Meliá, and that the hotel appeared to mysteriously keep power while the island suffered a nationwide blackout this weekend.
Cubans have been protesting against communism for decades, organizing peaceful movements calling for freedom and democracy. These protests escalated on July 11, 2021, when an estimated 187,000 people in every major city took the streets demanding an end to the Castro regime. Protests have not stopped since, but have escalated following an end to Cuba receiving free or highly discounted oil from Venezuela after the United States executed a warrant for deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The leftists of the “Nuestra America” tour group claim that American national security actions against accused narco-terrorist Maduro, and limits on America’s largest corporations spending money with the Castro regime, are the true source of poverty on the island. The most recent estimate, by Forbes in 2006, indicated that Fidel Castro was personally worth about $900 million.
The tour group’s members, in addition to their support for the regime, have offended Cubans with their social media presence during the trip. In one example, Christian Smalls, a leftist “worker” activist, published a photo in which he appears wearing five luxury chains alongside a crowd of poor Cuban children.
Hasan Piker, the leftist “streamer,” claimed during a live video on Saturday that Cubans were happy despite the misery that their government subjects them to.
“There’s rolling blackouts … people are partying in the fucking streets, I don’t know if its like an island mindset … I’m sure that has something to do with it,” he posited, “but, like, they’re just chillin. Cubans just – they vibe, they chill, they just literally vibe, it don’t matter, like, it’s just incredible… there’s like festivals everywhere.”
He also updated viewers as to his and the “Nuestra America” group’s activities by explaining, “We’ve just been livin’ la vida loca,” a reference to a hit song by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin from 1999.
Members of the radical leftist pro-dictatorship coalition Code Pink shared videos of themselves painting an alleged mural in Havana. Thanks to the Communist Party’s total lack of maintenance of the country’s infrastructure, many of these buildings are literally crumbling, routinely killing or threatening to kill its trapped residents.
The Irish rap group Kneecap held a concert in Havana this weekend for the leftist tour group, which confused Cubans on the group given the lack of electricity nationwide and the high demand for power that concert equipment has. Cuba experiences regular blackouts because the Communist Party has hoarded all the the nation’s money for its elites to live lavishly, failing to engage in any meaningful upkeep of its power plants for decades.
In an interview with the United Kingdom’s Channel 4, the members of Kneecap blamed the situation in Cuba, which has been stagnant and similarly critical for decades, on the United States, describing the widespread shortages of food and medicine on the island as a new phenomenon created by President Donald Trump. In reality, Cubans have lived with minimal access to health care and basic foods since the 1960s.
“We were just walking around this morning there and we see that one of the local pharmacies are down to the bare bones with medicines,” one of the members, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, narrates, “there’s queues in the corner with people trying to get bread, people are hungry, as well, and we know going back as far as the forced starvation that happened in Ireland, we were supported by the Choctaw people, Native Americans who sent over funds to help people over here starving.”
Lines for food in Cuba have been common since Fidel Castro implemented a communist ration system in the 1960s.
“It’s not the inability of the Cuban people to run their own country,” another Kneecap member insisted.
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