By Yoe Suarez

Not all of them, obviously. But the most visible political class within the Democratic Party today seems to melt into praise for the worst tyrants in the Hemisphere. And if those tyrants happen to be socialists, they fall head over heels in love.

Just look at Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Jonathan Jackson (D) of Illinois. A couple of weeks ago, they flew the more than 1,200 miles between the District of Columbia and Havana and stepped off the plane’s airstairs to be photographed alongside dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel.

My friend reading this: when you go looking for love, if someone ever looks at you the way Jayapal looked at the Cuban socialist dictator — that’s the one. This wasn’t their first encounter; back in 2024, she had already flown there on a very low-profile visit.

She and Jackson arrived just days after a “gourmet” contingent of the international Left had enjoyed an “ideological safari,” hosted by the Communist Party and lodged in luxury hotels — the only illuminated buildings in Havana.

Among this group of enthusiastic admirers of totalitarianism was Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) daughter, proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree (or, as we would say in Cuba: “hijo de gato, caza ratón” — a kitten hunts mice). Her mother had, in fact, accompanied Jayapal on that earlier trip to the island two years prior.

During their 2026 visit, Jayapal and Jackson spent five days strolling through the Cuban capital’s few remaining walkable streets — those not yet choked with garbage or reduced to rubble. And on Easter Sunday — a holy day observed in the Christian West for some 2,000 years — Jayapal issued a public statement calling for the resurrection of the socialist Revolution’s unburied corpse.

During her walks across the island — as the Representative wrote on X — she witnessed “firsthand the devastation and suffering caused by the U.S. fuel blockade.” She was referring to the ban on fuel shipments entering the island, a measure that has been in effect since January. However, Jayapal failed to mention that the “energy crisis” is not something created by the administration currently occupying the White House.

Since 1966, the regime has elevated power outages to the status of a vernacular fixture — something the Communist Party’s official press has promised to resolve ever since. At that time, Donald Trump was 19 years old.

As Pastor Carlos López Valdez aptly wrote: “In 1966, [the Castros] claimed that the blackouts were temporary. … Sixty years later, the only thing that remains permanent is the lie.” That lie continues to be perpetuated by voices such as Jayapal’s.

In her Sunday statement, she highlighted that they observed “premature babies in incubators, weighing just two pounds, who are at tremendous risk because their ventilators and incubators cannot function without electricity.” Yet, she refrained from mentioning how the Trump administration — in response to humanitarian emergencies — authorized the entry of a Russian oil tanker into the island.

Nor did Jayapal say a word about the staggering number of abortions on the island — babies who never make it to an incubator because the socialist “culture of death” views the individual as mere flesh, and has for decades urged Cubans to reject the family and instead “marry” the Revolution.

The visiting Democrat stated: “We heard from a wide variety of voices — families, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, civil society organizations, the Cuban government, Latin American and African ambassadors, humanitarian aid organizations, and Cubans across the political spectrum, including dissidents. Across all sectors, there is agreement: this illegal blockade must end immediately.”

She offered no further details regarding precisely whom they spoke with across this “entire political spectrum,” but I can assure you that they did not speak with Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, Berta Soler, or “Coco” Fariñas — highly respected leaders on the island who have for years supported sanctions against the regime.

They, like me, know that every drop of fuel entering the country will not power more Cuban homes, but rather police patrols used to continue silencing those who protest — just as is occurring during this “Spring of Fire.”

Although Jayapal does not speak Spanish as her first language, it is clear that she speaks the political language of tyranny. In her statement, she hastened to whitewash Havana’s image.

“The Cuban government has sent many signals that this is a new moment for the country. While we were there, President Diaz-Canel released over 2,000 prisoners,” she wrote. However, none of them were among the more than 1,200 political prisoners who are beaten and tortured day in and day out.

Jayapal repeated the propaganda slogan that the Cuban government has begun to “liberalize its economy with significant reforms, including allowing Cuban American entrepreneurs to invest in private businesses in Cuba.” Only a madman would invest in a political territory as volatile as Cuba — that is to say, as volatile as the outbursts of Raúl Castro.

“Entrepreneurship has grown substantially, with small- and medium-sized private businesses now comprising large parts of the economy,” said the Democrat, glossing over the fact that many small and medium-sized enterprises — which were prohibited for over 50 years — are, in many cases, linked to Castroist cronies or elite families, and are not designed to foster a broad middle class capable of influencing the country’s political decisions.

The regime has not liberalized anything. Decree 107 of 2024 remains in force, prohibiting technical and professional activities such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, financial intermediation, book publishing and layout, television broadcasting and telecommunications, as well as various forms of transportation and storage.

The statement by Jayapal, along with other recent gestures from the Democratic Party, demonstrates that Washington, D.C. is a peculiar place. Undoubtedly, Havana finds both its greatest rival and its staunchest allies within the very same city.

Yoe Suárez is an exiled journalist, writer, and producer who investigated in Havana about torture, political police, gangs, government black lists, and cybersurveillance. A graduate of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, he was a CBN correspondent, and has written for outlets like The Hill and Newsweek. He has appeared on Vox, Univision, and Deutsche Welle as an analyst on Cuba, security, and U.S. foreign policy.

This piece originally appeared here.