The media’s sleaziest propagandists are mad about the recent aid mission to Cuba, smearing activists who brought supplies. They’re trying to
I've been listening to Madeline Pendelton (they/them) talking about the aid mission to Cuba. They've been uploading their Twitch VODS to their YouTube channel (where a lot of the conversations about what they did and saw is).
Legacy media, particularly GOP-aligned news, is making a big deal out of fact that US flotilla members were staying in 'five star' hotels.
There were unconfirmed reports about multiple people dying on ventilators that got spread (later refuted).
Dem-aligned news was interviewing members of Cuba's govt and really pushing the idea that they don't have free press, and or free elections, etc.
Teachers and govt officials were telling Pendelton and the other flotilla members that the best thing they can do to help the people (aside from the material aid) is to combat disinformation and propaganda about Cuba.
They wanted aid participants talk to the people in their lives, and relay that Cuba isn't some dictatorship, nor is it on the brink of collapse.
And that, most importantly, "Cuban Americans do not speak for the people living in Cuba. We stayed, they didn't." (paraphrase of a paraphrase.)
Yesterday, they were on Twitch talking about how Cuba enshrined the rights of children (and LGBTQ+ rights) into law, and that kids have some level of government representation in politics.
They get to vote around age sixteen, and are generally treated with a kind of respect that is completely absent here in the US. To my understanding, they're not bargaining chips used to push draconian laws like mass online surveillance via Digital ID, Operating System level ID, and data harvesting.
Related:
‘Nuestra América Convoy to Cuba’ brings aid, solidarity (March 24, 2026)
Cuba Aid Flotilla Arrives in Havana (March 25, 2026)
Missing sailboats carrying aid land in Cuba after being located by Mexican navy (March 28, 2026)
By Chris Smalls
On May Day, I joined a delegation of organizers on a trip to Cuba to show solidarity with the Cuban people and call out t
