ICAP, Al-Tajammu, and pro-Hezbollah networks linked to the Cuban regime

About 145 kilometers off the coast of Key West, Florida, a little-known organization linked to the

Cuban intelligence apparatus trains foreigners to wage war against the West. Since the early days of Fidel Castro's revolution, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples (ICAP) has used "diplomacy" as a pretext to recruit radical activists from Western countries.

ICAP is an

organization affiliated with Cuban intelligence that targets disgruntled Americans and others under the guise of "solidarity," profiting from their travel expenses to Havana, where they are trained to sow chaos against their own governments. Some of the most notable extreme left activist groups, founded during the Vietnam War, such as the Venceremos Brigade, were trained by ICAP.

The organization

has come a long way since the 1960s. Today, the Cuban regime operates through 77 "solidarity groups" based in the United States, organized through the National Network on Cuba, a coalition associated with ICAP, which includes the Democratic Socialists of America. Globally, ICAP maintains relationships with around 2,000 such organizations in more than 150 countries, including 800 throughout Europe. It is also the body of the Cuban regime responsible for coordinating Cuba's relationships with sister cities in the United States, another vehicle of Cuban influence.

More recently, ICAP has shifted from

fostering leftist dissonance to facilitating connections between activists and organizations in the U.S. and Latin America that legitimize terrorism against Westerners and Jews. Therefore, the United States should sanction it.

In 2022, the Cuban regime used ICAP to extend an official invitation

to Al-Tajammu, a pro-Iran coalition whose board includes members of Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which played a decisive role in the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023.

During that meeting, ICAP formal

ized an agreement with Al-Tajammu. This development gained strategic importance for Iran and Hamas ahead of the October 7 attack as it began connecting Al-Tajammu with like-minded groups in Latin America.p>

Some of these groups have obtained consultative status in the United Nations. Others, like the Network

for the Defense of Humanity, self-identify as vehicles of soft power used by Cuban intelligence operations to promote their agenda. The network’s model follows the Soviet-era tradition of using intellectual circles as fronts to exert influence, recruit, and disseminate disinformation. Many operate in the South American Triple Frontier, where Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other entities are involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.

The threat is not opaque. In 2017, Cuba allowed the Popular

Front for the Liberation of Palestine to organize a branch in Havana, which today helps promote terrorist propaganda, meetings, and fundraising with American activists. Part of this media production is funded through an organization based in California, whose treasurer is the representative of Al-Tajammu in North America. Since 2022, this California group has been sending American activists to Cuba and Venezuela.

The effects of this alliance are already visible. In 2024, I reported that ICAP was playing

a role in hosting anti-Israel activists who traveled to Cuba for "training." Among those traveling to Havana were protesters who vandalized Jewish businesses and occupied the campus of Columbia University. These activities resulted in the harassment and intimidation of Jewish students.

Another organization

that ICAP used to host in Cuba was the Party for Socialism and Liberation, based in the United States, which has a long history of antisemitic rhetoric. This is no coincidence.

The Party for Social

ism and Liberation is also a member of the National Network on Cuba, and several of its members have reported feeling "inspired" or have solidified their activism after trips to Cuba in their youth.p>

In the United States, the party has sponsored or co-sponsored over 1,700 anti-Israel demonstrations

nationwide, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The group faced renewed scrutiny following an attack in May at a Jewish event in Washington that left two Israeli embassy employees dead. The man accused of the attack, Elias Rodríguez, allegedly shouted "Free Palestine" during his arrest and was reportedly a member.

The role that Cuba plays in the red-green alliance by assisting Al-Tajammu and others

in legitimizing violence remains dangerously underreported. Antisemitism has become the point of convergence for radical anti-Western groups that otherwise would not have an ideological connection to each other. In 2022, a cyberattack on the Iranian state media agency Press TV revealed that the network contacted leaders of the National Network on Cuba in the United States 52 times, exposing the connection between Cuba and Iran.

Cuba is not just a dictatorship; it is an intelligence dictatorship that

has mastered the art of manipulating reality to remain in power. By exploiting the similarities among radicals, Havana takes advantage of the grievances of American activists and mobilizes them to carry out its orders.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has extensive experience in Cuban affairs

, can help address this deficiency by advising President Trump to sanction ICAP. This would constitute an important step to weaken Havana's intelligence efforts to recruit, radicalize, and weaponize activists against the United States.

*Originally published in

target="_blank">The Washington Times under the title Trump should sanction Cuba’s pro-Hezbollah ICAP.