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While thousands of protesters confront federal agents on the streets of Los Angeles to oppose immigration raids, the political past of Mayor Karen Bass has once again made headlines in conservative media and social networks.
Critics have dusted off their ties with the Venceremos Brigade, a socialist-inspired group that operated from the United States and promoted solidarity with Cuba during the 1970s.
Bass traveled to the island in 1973, as a young activist, and had the opportunity to witness a speech by the dictator Fidel Castro. Decades later, in 2016, following the death of the former Cuban leader, he publicly praised him by referring to him as “Commander in Chief,” a phrase that immediately drew rejection from sectors of the Cuban exile community, especially in Florida.
"It was a great loss for the Cuban people", he said at that moment, although years later he would acknowledge that it was a mistake to use those terms, claiming that he had learned the lesson.
Conservative media such as Daily Mail have revived claims that Bass was even a “leader of the Venceremos Brigade in Southern California,” an organization that some viewed as an extension of the communist regime on U.S. soil.
"Karen Bass was trained in revolutionary warfare and subversion by brigades sponsored by the Cuban regime," wrote a user on X.
Others accuse her of being a "revolutionary communist" and even call for a federal investigation into her current political influence.
In 2020, when her name was mentioned as a potential running mate of former President Joe Biden, various sectors of the Cuban exile community spoke out against her.
The Democratic congresswoman Donna Shalala even suggested that Bass “should spend some time in Miami to understand what it means to live under a dictatorship”. Other Cuban-American political leaders labeled her as "neomarxist" and questioned her suitability for holding a position so close to the presidential power.
Despite the criticism, a spokesperson for Bass noted that her approach aimed to promote better relations between the United States and Cuba, as part of the thaw initiated by Barack Obama, which she actively supported by traveling to the island in 2015 and 2016.
This resurgence of the past from Bass, 71 years old, comes amid a migration crisis ignited by the raids of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the orders from President Donald Trump, who has dispatched 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles to contain the unrest.
The clashes have resulted in burned vehicles, tear gas, non-lethal ammunition, and an escalating atmosphere of tension in Latino neighborhoods such as Paramount.
Trump directly blamed Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom for failing to control the situation and asserted that both were "incompetent." The mayor, for her part, denied that the National Guard had been officially deployed in the city and expressed gratitude for the support of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Governor Newsom accused the federal government of "deliberately provoking" the population with the massive deployment of troops and warned that it would "erode public trust."
Meanwhile, Cubans in the United States, especially those who fled from communism, watch with concern the prominence of a political figure like Bass, who in her youth openly showed sympathies for the regime in Havana. Although she has nuanced her positions over time, her words still carry symbolic weight for a community marked by exile and political trauma.
The protests, which have already been ongoing for several days, are set to take place again this Monday. And as law enforcement intensifies its operations, the name of Cuba echoes once more in the debate surrounding immigration, civil rights, and the role of local leaders in one of the most tense social crises in recent times in the United States.
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