This article is the third installment in a three-part Fox News Digital investigative series examining allegations that the Communist Party of Cuba built and cultivated transnational influence networks inside through nonprofits, activist organizations, solidarity campaigns, labor unions, educational exchanges and political delegations.
When President intensified sanctions pressure on Cuba’s communist government earlier this year, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said he turned to a friend for advice.
“I hit my friend up, David Adler, and I was like, ‘What do we do?'” Piker recalled in an online interview. “And he’s like, ‘I’m already working on it.'”
What followed, according to Piker’s own account, was the assembly of a transnational convoy that brought hundreds of activists, politicians, journalists and organizers from dozens of countries to Cuba, delivering an estimated 40 tons of supplies as part of a campaign branded “Nuestra América Convoy,” or “Our America Convoy.”
The remarks offer one of the clearest public disclosures to date of how the popular streamer became involved in a trip that is now drawing scrutiny from federal investigators. Fox News Digital exclusively reported a week ago that Assets Control recently issued administrative subpoenas to Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, seeking records related to their Cuba travel, communications and financial activity connected to the convoy, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The requests sought travel records, communications and financial records related to Cuba activities, including possible contacts with Cuban government personnel or entities.
Public attention surrounding the trip has largely focused appropriately on CodePink, Piker, Shanghai-based American Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, and Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, who posted a selfie photo with Piker in Havana. On Monday, Piker raised the attention of even U.S. officials when he said he believes the “real goal” of the , because he funds “political operations” in the U.S.
But an analysis of hundreds of hours of Piker’s livestreams and interviews compiled by computer engineer Jennica Pounds, a data scientist known online as “Data Republican,” repeatedly points to a lesser-known organization that played a central role in planning the mission: Progressive International, run by Piker’s friend, Adler.
“What makes Progressive International so dangerous is that, by co-opting progressive values, it provides political legitimacy to authoritarian regimes with longstanding records of repression and gross human rights violations, and whose purpose is to destroy the United States,” said Gelet Martinez Fragela, a Cuban American journalist based in Boca Raton, Fla.
“That is precisely the propaganda strategy of the Cuban regime, which has historically used solidarity groups and activist networks as cover to build alliances, raise funds and maintain power while continuing to embed itself within illicit and anti-democratic networks around the world,” she told Fox News Digital.
Born in Cuba, Martinez Fragela has been investigating the government of Cuba’s influence in the Western Hemisphere for years, mapping the network it builds activists, nonprofits and governments to activate support for the Communist Party of Cuba. Her website, ADNCuba.com, is blocked on the island.
Progressive International is one of the most important of the 145 nonprofits, labor groups, advocacy organizations and activist collectives that Fox News Digital identified as part of a network, mobilizing in support of the Cuban government and the <span suggestionid="2a8a21b4-0ba1-4b87-b627-29f85a15891a" highlighted="true" suggestiontype="_METADATA" isinsertion="false" class="_suggestionUnderline_1elhj_1268 _agentSuggestion_1elhj_1284 _highlight_1elhj_1318" data-suggestion-id="2a8a21b4-0ba1-4b8
