Two high-ranking Cuban diplomats stationed in the United States participated in encounters with leftist activists and union leaders in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 22, Martí Noticias reported Saturday.
The outlet identified Alejandro García del Toro, minister-counselor and second head of mission of the Cuban embassy in Washington, and Gabriela Castillo Rodriguez, second secretary to the embassy, as the two communist regime diplomats who reportedly participated in the leftist gathering.
The event was reportedly sponsored by Radio Free Georgia (WRFG 89.3FM), a “progressive” radio station based in Atlanta that claims to provide “a voice for those who have been traditionally denied open access to the broadcast media through the involvement of a broad base of community elements to guarantee that access.”
The Atlanta chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America published pictures of the Cuban diplomats in the meeting on its social media accounts. The Atlanta socialists said they were “honored” to meet with the Cuban diplomats and “learn” about the U.S. “embargo” on Cuba and its “harmful impact.”
Workers World — the newspaper of the Workers World Party, a New York-based Marxist–Leninist party — also covered the event. According to the Marxist newspaper, the leftist encounter was “the first opportunity for most of the audience to learn about the Cuban revolutionary process firsthand”:
Both diplomats addressed the harmful results of more than 60 years of the U.S.-imposed economic blockade of Cuba, but they proudly explained the country’s social advances in health care and education, in particular, as well as Cuba’s renowned history of international solidarity.
“The call for increased support to end the vicious blockade was well-received by all in attendance, but especially by the many youth,” the newspaper continued.
While both Castro regime diplomats denounced the U.S. “embargo” on Cuba as the cause of the country’s woes, they reportedly made no mention of the more than six decades of gross communist mismanagement and numerous human rights abuses committed by the ruling communists against Cuban citizens. Communist rule has pushed the island nation to the brink of complete ruin, forcing its inhabitants to live in conditions of extreme poverty and leading to Cuba’s worst-ever migrant crisis and the ongoing collapse of its population.
The Atlanta gathering that the two Cuban communist diplomats attended reportedly also included the participation of other leftist organizations, such as:
Black Alliance for Peace, Community Movement Builders, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, Workers World Party, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, ANSWER Coalition, members of the Teamsters and Painters unions and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, housing and “Stop Cop City” activists, Palestinian students, Amazon workers and others.
Martí Noticias pointed out in its report that, according to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the functions of a diplomatic mission are limited to:
Representing the sending State in the receiving State; Protecting in the receiving State the interests of the sending State and of its nationals, within the limits permitted by international law; Negotiating with the Government of the receiving State; Ascertaining by all lawful means conditions and developments in the receiving State, and reporting thereon to the Government of the sending State; Promoting friendly relations between the sending State and the receiving State, and developing their economic, cultural and scientific relations.
The August meeting between U.S. leftist activists and Cuban Castro regime officials is the latest in a series of similar events publicly known in recent months.
In June, far-left U.S. students traveled to Havana to meet with communist officials and the Castro regime’s figurehead “president” Miguel Diaz-Canel. The trip saw the leftist U.S. students express support for both socialism and the Cuban communist regime while condemning the United States and demanding a “socialist world.”
Reports published in May indicated that some of the activists at the forefront of the pro-jihadist group Hamas and anti-Israel wave of protests across U.S. college campuses had received direct training and support from Cuba’s communist regime.
In February, the Miami Herald reported that Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) led a delegation of the “Congressional Progressive Caucus” on a secret trip to Cuba, where they reportedly met with Castro regime officials to discuss “human rights and the U.S.-Cuba bilateral relationship.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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