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The Cuban-American Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar appeared on Monday on the America's Newsroom program on Fox News to harshly criticize the visit of Code Pink activists and other participants of the "Convoy Nuestra América" to Cuba, coining a phrase that quickly went viral: "Cuba has become the Disney World of communists".
Salazar described the island as an illusion staged for Marxist activists and "useful idiots" while the Cuban people endure blackouts, hunger, and repression. "They receive the show. The Cuban people live the consequences," he wrote on his X account after the interview.
The congresswoman, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described Code Pink as "a bunch of useful idiots" and pointed out the irony of their defense of a system in Cuba that denies the very rights they exercise freely in the United States.
"It is very ironic that the same rights that they have in this country as Americans under our democratic system are the same rights that are denied to Cubans," he stated.
Salazar also recalled the situation of the political prisoners on the island: "There are 1,000 Cubans in jail just for chanting freedom. But Code Pink doesn’t want to be confused with the facts."
The catalyst for the statements was the arrival of the 'Convoy Nuestra América' in Havana last Saturday, an initiative organized by Progressive International, Code Pink, The People's Forum, and Global Health Partners.
The convoy brought together about 650 activists from 33 countries and 120 organizations, including former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Spanish politician Pablo Iglesias, and the Irish rap group Kneecap. Code Pink departed from Miami on Friday the 20th with 6,300 pounds of medicines and medical equipment valued at $433,000.
The contrast between the privileges of the visitors and the Cuban reality was evident: the delegates were accommodated in five-star hotels with their own generators, while a general blackout surprised the island on Sunday during the ideological tour of the convoy. Díaz-Canel used the event as a propaganda platform and proclaimed at the Palace of Conventions: "Cuba is not alone."
Salazar framed his criticism within the context of the foreign policy of the Trump administration, pointing out the deterioration of the regime without its traditional allies: "No other nation, neither Russia nor Venezuela, is helping them. They have no energy. They sell nothing. They produce nothing. They have survived through repression."
The Cuban energy crisis worsened since December 2025, when Venezuela halted oil shipments following the downfall of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026. The UN warned in February of a potential "humanitarian collapse" on the island if its energy needs are not met.
It's not the first time Salazar has directly confronted Code Pink. In March 2024, he publicly confronted them in front of Congress during a press conference to keep Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, stating at the time: "If what they did in Cuba happened here, they would be beaten and jailed."
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