Because the DSA knows who the real enemy is: The Trump administration has doubled down on the decades-long embargo on Cuba, cutting off access to oil and effectively choking the island’s energy grid. It’s a total siege, or at least that’s the party line. They call it economic warfare, and frankly, it sounds pretty dire for the ten million people caught in the middle of it.
So, the DSA is jumping into the fray. They are joining the Nuestra América (“Our America”) Convoy, a coalition of leftist NGOs promising to “break the blockade” by delivering—well, a rather modest amount of supplies. It smells like a grand gesture, doesn’t it? The United Nations has warned of a potential humanitarian collapse, and the convoy’s organizers are citing international law and UN values to justify their presence. It feels a bit like those old Gaza flotilla projects, which, let’s be honest, were more about the optics than the cargo.
David Adler is the face of this operation. You might remember him from the Gaza flotilla days—he’s aiming to bring global attention to the crisis with a scheduled arrival in Havana on March 21st. The whole thing has that distinct whiff of high-minded, Western-led political theater. Or maybe it’s just performative. It’s hard to tell the difference these days.
But wait, have they actually talked to any Cubans? Asking a citizen in a totalitarian state what they think of the government is a fast track to losing your ration card, or worse. The folks who actually left—the ones who’ve been packing into boats for Florida for sixty years—are clearly not impressed by this “humanitarian” optics push.
According to Misryoum, local outlets like El Toque are painting a much grimmer picture. They argue that these shortages and blackouts aren’t just about Washington’s sanctions; they’re rooted deep in the island’s own structural failures. The regime is dealing with a massive exodus of its own people—the largest in modern history—and yet the convoy is laser-focused on blaming the U.S. for everything. It’s almost impressive how they manage to ignore the hundreds of political prisoners.
Maybe the real paradise isn’t what they think.
Pretending that Cuba would be a utopia if not for the embargo is just magical thinking at this point. It’s easy to organize a convoy from afar, but the reality on the ground—well, it’s far messier. If you look at the recent footage of citizens setting fire to a Communist Party headquarters in Morón, you get a sense of how the actual residents feel about their leadership. I think I’ll just sit back and watch how this one unfolds. Grab the popcorn.