This is the second article in a series examining the Communist Party of Cuba’s alleged malign foreign influence campaign in the U.S., using Americans to bolster its communist regime.
WASHINGTON, D.C. â As the Treasury Department investigates Marxist streamer Hasan Piker for potentially breaking laws barring doing business with Cuba’s communist regime, Fox News Digital has learned that the Piker probe is part of a wider inquiry federal officials are making into a possible influence operation by Cuba: this one on U.S. soil, led, in part, by a charming senior diplomat at the Embassy of Cuba.
The U.S. operation is part of a global transnational pro-Cuba network that brought Piker to Cuba in March as part of the Nuestra América Convoy, or “Our America” Convoy. Piker told a podcast that “the Cuban government actually hit my contact from the embassy” and promised him “consistent internet access,” if he’d make a trip to Cuba. He didn’t name his embassy “contact.”
The federal probe is being conducted jointly by the Justice, State and Treasury departments, according to sources. Fox News Digital’s own investigation of the matter led to a worn building, marked “Machinists Hall” in big letters outside, facing Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington, Calif., outside Los Angeles.
On the night of May 9, pro-communism activists walked through the doors of Machinists Hall, past folding tables lined with pins lionizing communist leader Che Guevara, copies of philosopher Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” and stacks of “The Militant” newspaper, quickly taking their seats on folding chairs in a tight room that filled up to about 50 people.
Across the front of the room hung a banner, essentially proclaiming Cuba’s foreign policy and national security priorities: “U.S. HANDS OFF CUBA! Remove Cuba from state sponsors terrorism list! END THE BLOCKADE, TRADE, TRAVEL BANS & SANCTIONS!” At the bottom in smaller print was the sponsor for the night’s strategy session: the U.S. Hands Off Cuba Committee, a collection of 23 organizations, including CodePink, whose co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin was also sent a subpoena by the Treasury Department for her trip to Cuba in March, sources said.
They had assembled to hear from a special guest: David RamÃrez Ãlvarez, second secretary at the Embassy of Cuba. RamÃrez Ãlvarez has drawn the attention of U.S. officials for allegedly coordinating a in the U.S., sources told Fox News Digital.
A spokesperson for the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, D.C., denied any improprieties. The embassy didn’t make RamÃrez Ãlvarez available for an interview.
“Cuban diplomats strictly comply with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In the United States, our diplomatic work has been categorically aligned with its principles and purposes,” the spokesperson said.
The Vienna Convention states explicitly that diplomats must “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State.” It also states: “They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.”
A Fox News Digital investigation found the U.S. Hands Off Cuba Committee is part of a wider pro-communist Cuba network that numbers 145 organizations with $1 billion in collective annual revenues, spanning labor unions, university groups, anti-war coalitions, socialist organizations, racial justice nonprofits, legal advocacy groups and religious organizations. The network includes at least 123 key leaders.
The network is led by a number of groups â including the People’s Forum, CodePink, BreakThrough News, Tricontinental Ltd., ANSWER Coalition, Party for Socialism and Liberation and Inter Religious Foun
