Trump’s New Cuba Campaign Puts Mayor Karen Bass Back In The Crosshairs

LOS ANGELES, CA — Mayor Karen Bass’ decades-old ties to Cuba resurfaced Monday in a sweeping U.S. State Department report that portrays her early activism and later support for normalized relations as part of a long-running campaign by Cuba to influence American politics.

The 99-page report, titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” declares that Cuba remains a threat to the U.S. and claims the country has had "remarkable success" in infiltrating the federal government and left-wing movements. The report suggests that Cuba influenced political upheavals in the U.S., including disorder following the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

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The report uses markedly more urgent language about Cuba than American diplomats and intelligence officials have typically used in recent decades, the Washington Post reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime opponent of Cuba’s communist government, has pushed an increasingly aggressive American policy toward the island. The Post reported that the document’s language has fueled speculation that the administration is laying a foundation for overthrowing the Cuban government.

The report identifies Bass as a former "leading" organizer for the Venceremos Brigade, which arranged trips to Cuba for American activists beginning in the late 1960s.

"Over the past half century, programs like the Brigade have helped Cuba infiltrate and establish a foothold in a series of radical American political movements. Increasingly, its reach has also extended to mainstream liberal institutions – elite academia, major nonprofits and NGOs, and even the Democratic Party itself," the report reads.

Bass has previously said her early trips to Cuba had a humanitarian focus and that her ties to the brigade have been overstated. She said she built houses and toured healthcare facilities, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The report does not directly accuse Bass of committing a crime or engaging in espionage. It uses previously reported aspects of her history to support the administration’s wider claims about Cuban political influence.

According to the report, Bass once traveled to Cuba as frequently as every six months, a claim the document attributes to an interview she gave in 1996.

The report also cites Bass’ participation in a 2016 congressional delegation that traveled to the island with then-President Barack Obama as his administration sought to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

After Castro died later that year, Bass issued a statement referring to him by the honorific “Comandante en Jefe” and describing his death as “a great loss to the people of Cuba.”

Bass faced similar scrutiny in 2020 when she emerged as a possible running mate for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.

At the time, Bass walked back her statement about Castro and said her understanding of Cuba had changed over the years, Politico reported.

Bass said Castro’s government “was a brutal regime” and that she would not issue the same statement again.

Bass at the time said she continued to support diplomatic engagement with Cuba, arguing that closer relations offered the best opportunity to produce political change on the island.

The report also identifies another Los Angeles politician, former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as a Venceremos Brigade alumnus.

A 2020 Stanford University publication argued that Bass’ travel should be considered within the broader history of Black activists visiting Cuba to study its social programs and approach to racial inequality.

Patch has reached out to Bass' office for comment.