Last weekend, hundreds of left-wing activists and politicians from around the world descended on Cuba. As participants in the Nuestra América Convoy, they brought with them some 20 tons of humanitarian aid ostensibly to help a population suffering under President Donald Trump’s merciless oil embargo. Because the Cuban people apparently haven’t suffered enough, high-profile delegates included former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Ryan Grim of Hamas-friendly Drop Site News, the shrieking harpies of Code Pink, the ubiquitous internet streamer Hasan Piker, and Isra Hirsi, the daughter of U.S. Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
There’s a good chance you’ve already heard about the convoy due to the ample social media activity of its members, who spent more time broadcasting their exploits to millions of followers than doing anything that might actually help the average Cuban. A highlight of the trip was a motorized tour through downtown Havana during which guests could take pictures of destitute Habaneros and Habaneras as if they were zoo animals. The same day as a “humanitarian performance” by Kneecap—an Irish rap group named after one of the Ireland Republican Army’s grislier forms of punishment and known for holding a Hezbollah flag at one of their performances last year—the country’s electrical grid went out. Luckily, the luxurious Gran Hotel Bristol Meliá Collection, where some comrades reportedly spent the weekend, was one of the few buildings on the island to maintain power, a telling fact that appeared not to have made an impression on anyone.
