A recent discussion featuring writer Zoé Valdés, political scientist Julio Shiling, and scientist César Reynel Aguilera highlighted what the participants describe as a historical shift: the American left no longer hides its ties to the Castro regime but openly displays them.
The catalyst for the debate was the visit of four Democratic congress members to Cuba from July 9 to 13, 2026, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the 11J protests. Teresa Leger Fernández, Delia Catalina Ramírez, Maxine Elizabeth Dexter, and Mark Pocan met with Miguel Díaz-Canel in Havana and described the situation on the island as a "silent Gaza," a phrase Pocan attributed to a Cuban citizen he spoke with in the streets of the capital.
"Before, the American left was very careful to ensure that any links to Castro's intelligence or to Castroism could not be found. That is no longer true," noted Reynel Aguilera. The reference to Nancy Pelosi—who led a delegation of nine Democratic congress members to Havana in February 2015, as part of Obama's thaw—serves as a symbol of that historical pattern which, according to the participants, today operates without any pretense.
"On the anniversary of July 11, a group of bandits from the Democratic Party went to Havana. It’s blatant," stated Reynel Aguilera, referring to the pattern of Democratic visits to the island.
For his part, Shiling outlined a genealogy of Castro's influence on American politics that dates back to the 1960s and 70s, with radical groups like the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground, and includes the case of Senator George McGovern, as cited by Reynel Aguilera. However, the latter distinguished that past from the current moment, believing that today's Congress members have access to intelligence committees and privileged information. "It's on another level now," he stated.
In this regard, Reynel Aguilera emphasized that what is happening now is of a qualitatively different scale. He also pointed out the Congressional Black Caucus as a space of Castroist influence.
The visit in July was not an isolated incident. In April 2026, Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan Jackson had already traveled to Havana and met with Díaz-Canel, marking the first of two Democratic visits in less than four months.
In May, a group of 32 Democratic legislators called for a change in U.S. policy towards Cuba, and in June they attempted once again to block the Trump Administration's measures against the island.
Shiling was unequivocal in pointing out that this activity is not new for U.S. security agencies. "The FBI has more than enough information about 67 years of Castro-communist activism in groups within the United States... and of an extraordinary presence that seeks to destabilize the United States."
Reynel Aguilera, for his part, pointed to an electoral dimension of the phenomenon. In his view, the Democratic Party's plan was to use newly arrived Cuban opposition members in exile to erode the political control of the Cuban community in South Florida. "The plan didn't work because Trump was re-elected," he stated.
At the time of the visit by the Democratic congress members in July, Cuba had between 1,281 and 1,306 political prisoners, of which at least 338 were connected to the protests of July 11, a reality that the visiting legislators did not mention in their public statements.
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