This article is the third installment in a three-part Fox News Digital investigative series examining allegations that the Communist Party of Cuba built and cultivated transnational influence networks inside through nonprofits, activist organizations, solidarity campaigns, labor unions, educational exchanges and political delegations.
When President Donald Trump intensified sanctions pressure on Cuba’s communist government earlier this year, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said he turned to a friend for advice.
“I hit my friend up, David Adler, and I was like, ‘What do we do?'” Piker recalled in an online interview. “And he’s like, ‘I’m already working on it.'”
What followed, according to Piker’s own account, was the assembly of a transnational convoy that brought hundreds of activists, politicians, journalists and organizers from dozens of countries to Cuba, delivering an estimated 40 tons of supplies as part of a campaign branded “Nuestra América Convoy,” or “Our America Convoy.”
The remarks offer one of the clearest public disclosures to date of how the popular streamer became involved in a trip that is now drawing scrutiny from federal investigators. Fox News Digital exclusively reported a week ago that Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control recently issued administrative subpoenas to Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, seeking records related to their Cuba travel, communications and financial activity connected to the convoy, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The requests sought travel records, communications and financial records related to Cuba activities, including possible contacts with Cuban government personnel or entities.
Public attention surrounding the trip has largely focused appropriately on CodePink, Piker, Shanghai-based American Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, and Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, who posted a selfie photo with Piker in Havana. On Monday, Piker raised the attention of even U.S. officials when he said he believes the “real goal” of the Treasury Department investigation is Singham, because he funds “political operations” in the U.S.
But an analysis of hundreds of hours of Piker’s livestreams and interviews compiled by computer engineer Jennica Pounds, a data scientist known online as “Data Republican,” repeatedly points to a lesser-known organization that played a central role in planning the mission: Progressive International, run by Piker’s friend, Adler.
“What makes Progressive International so dangerous is that, by co-opting progressive values, it provides political legitimacy to authoritarian regimes with longstanding records of repression and gross human rights violations, and whose purpose is to destroy the United States,” said Gelet Martinez Fragela, a Cuban American journalist based in Boca Raton, Fla.
“That is precisely the propaganda strategy of the Cuban regime, which has historically used solidarity groups and activist networks as cover to build alliances, raise funds and maintain power while continuing to embed itself within illicit and anti-democratic networks around the world,” she told Fox News Digital.
Born in Cuba, Martinez Fragela has been investigating the government of Cuba’s influence in the Western Hemisphere for years, mapping the network it builds activists, nonprofits and governments to activate support for the Communist Party of Cuba. Her website, ADNCuba.com, is blocked on the island.
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Progressive International is one of the most important of the 145 nonprofits, labor groups, advocacy organizations and activist collectives that Fox News Digital identified as part of a network, mobilizing in support of the Cuban government and the Communist Party of Cuba. Together, the organizations report about $1 billion in combined annual revenue. They are rallying this week to run to the streets in support of Cuba if the U.S. wages military action on the country.
Founded in 2020, Progressive International emerged from a political initiative launched by Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, a member of the increasingly powerful Democratic Socialists of America, and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, a far-left politician, after a gathering of activists in Burlington, Vt., from Nov. 29 through Dec. 1, 2018, where organizers called for a new “international progressive movement.” Adler was at the meeting.
Today Adler leads a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Progressive International Exchange Inc., based in Calabasas, Calif., with EIN 93-3021918. Its most recent IRS Form 990 reported only $261,039 in annual revenue and $215,772 in net assets. It isn’t clear if the U.S. nonprofit is related to the “Progressive International” coalition, which is based in Athens, Greece, coordinating massive mobilizations, like the Cuba convoy, conferences and public actions. Progressive International and Adler didn’t respond to a request for comment.
At the center of the organization is Adler, who was born in Encino, Calif., graduated from Brown University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and trained at Oxford University as a political economist. He previously directed policy for Varoufakis’ “Democracy in Europe Movement,” known as “DiEM25,” and served on Sanders’ foreign policy advisory team before becoming Progressive International’s general coordinator.
In 2024, Germany actually barred Varoufakis for leading polarizing anti-Israel protests with local Palestinians. Varoufakis wrote that the decision reflected Germany’s “turn to repression.”
According to the public record, Adler occupies an unusual position inside the Cuba solidarity movement, with close ties with the Communist Party of Cuba. Last year, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly intervened on Adler’s behalf when Israeli authorities detained him when he joined a flotilla to Israel, supposedly carrying “aid” to Palestinians in Gaza. A Jewish American, Adler shared a video of himself from the boat awkwardly calling his parents to tell them that he was on the flotilla to Gaza.
Qatar’s state-funded anti-Israel TV network, Al Jazeera, shared the video on social media with childhood photos of Adler and its own propaganda spin, writing, “David Adler called his parents from the deck of a flotilla boat to tell them he had joined the mission to Gaza. He is one of many Jewish activists who say they can no longer stay on the sidelines.”
In much the same way, the convoy to Cuba was blasted to the world from Havana with an anti-U.S. propaganda theme, criticizing America’s “imperialism.”
During the convoy’s visit to Cuba in March, Adler could be seen in a VIP seat beside Díaz-Canel, as the president listened politely to Adler and later pumped his fist in the air during an event sponsored by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, known as ICAP.
As reported, generations of activists traveled to Cuba through labor brigades, educational exchanges, solidarity delegations and political tours organized through institutions connected to the Cuban state, including the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP, and the Venceremos Brigade, now a fiscally-sponsored project of the People’s Forum in the Singham network. It’s led today by Fernando González Llort, one of the “Cuban Five” intelligence officers convicted in the United States on espionage-related charges.
A spokesperson from the Embassy of Cuba told Fox News Digital that it isn’t engaged in any operations of malign foreign influence and is simply trying to protect the state’s sovereignty.
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An advisory council of Progressive International includes Mariela Castro Espín, a member of Cuba’s National Assembly and the daughter of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, indicted earlier this month by the U.S. for murder.
“That fact that Mariela Castro has a position of power with Progressive International is not insignificant,” said Martinez Fragela, the Cuban American journalist. “In plain terms, it means that a member of the Castro family, a senior figure within the Cuban Communist Party, a member of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, and part of the broader Cuban political apparatus is involved in guiding the direction of the organization.”
In one interview, Piker described himself as “good friends” with Progressive International organizers. In another, he identified Adler and Varoufakis by name when discussing the organization. Adler later appeared on Piker’s livestream, where Piker described him as “someone who I have the honor of calling a comrade.”
Adler replied, “Thanks, brother. It’s a pleasure to be here.”
The organization’s role in the March convoy was extensive.
The Nuestra América Convoy wasn’t a spontaneous jaunt. Progressive International described it as an international operation involving approximately 650 delegates from 33 countries and 120 organizations. The mission combined charter flights, maritime flotillas and aid shipments carrying food, medicine, medical supplies and solar panels to Cuba.
Piker documented part of the operation himself and part of his defense against scrutiny for making the trip to Cuba is that he went as “a journalist.”
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In his Cuba documentary, he showed himself boarding what he described as a “special plane” departing from Miami. It was the same plane that CodePink’s Benjamin filmed as the one CodePink’s delegation was flying to Cuba. In the film, Piker credited Progressive International, CodePink and the ANSWER Coalition for organizing the effort.
“Shout out Code Pink, Answer Coalition, Progressive International,” Piker said. “They set up a flight with medical aid, solar panels, food, numerous things that the Cuban population desperately needs.”
The participants included former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, CodePink activists, labor organizers, international delegates and public figures from multiple countries. Before traveling, Piker said he consulted Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama and a central figure in the administration’s Cuba normalization effort.
“I had talked to Ben Rhodes prior to going,” Piker said. “And he said to me like, ‘You’re going to be very sad when you see it.'” Piker repeated the story in multiple interviews and public appearances after returning from Havana.
After arriving in Havana, Piker said he largely embedded with “Belly of the Beast,” a media organization named for a term that is used by communists and far-leftists to describe operating inside the U.S., the so-called “beast” in their propaganda.
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“I locked in with Belly of the Beast,” he later said. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Center for American Documentary Inc., based in Newton, Mass., serves as the fiscal sponsor for Belly of the Beast Films LLC, based in Ketchum, Idaho, according to public records. Tax filings show that Center for American Documentary gave Belly of the Beast $188,043 in 2024 for “film production services.”
Piker’s resulting propaganda documentary from Cuba features interviews with several senior Cuban officials and institutional leaders, including Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s vice minister of foreign affairs, one of the country’s highest-ranking diplomats, representing the Communist Party of Cuba. Piker also interviewed officials connected to Cuba’s international medical missions as well as researchers working in the country’s health-care and energy sectors.
The convoy itself reflected a model that has existed inside the Cuba solidarity movement for decades.
Investigators examining the modern Cuba solidarity movement increasingly view the Nuestra América Convoy as the latest evolution of that infrastructure, using the cover of “humanitarian aid” for political advocacy, propaganda generation and distribution and activist networking in a single international operation.
The trip to Cuba was only one part of Progressive International’s activities.
In October 2025, when Adler participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, he was detained by Israeli authorities after vessels attempted to challenge Israel’s blockade. Following his release, Adler appeared on Piker’s livestream and described another Progressive International initiative known as the Hague Group.
“One of the things that we do at the Progressive International is help to coordinate a group that’s called the Hague Group,” Adler told Piker’s audience. He described it as a coalition of countries committed to taking action on behalf of international law and the Palestinian cause.
By March 2026, the Hague Group had grown into a coalition of approximately 40 countries coordinated through Progressive International’s organizational infrastructure.
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The overlap illustrates how the same organization that helped bring Piker to Cuba also operates across a broader network of international campaigns involving Cuba, Gaza and anti-sanctions activism.
Federal investigators aren’t examining protected political speech. Across thousands of transcripts, Piker consistently described the Cuba trip as a “humanitarian” mission and repeatedly stated that participants traveled under procedures authorized by Treasury. He has publicly maintained that he signed OFAC paperwork and complied with federal requirements.
Instead, investigators are examining communications, financial records, travel logistics and possible contacts with Cuban government personnel or entities connected to the convoy, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.
For investigators, the significance of the convoy extends beyond a single influencer’s trip to Havana.
The same organizations that organized the March mission — Progressive International, People’s Forum, CodePink and the ANSWER Coalition — repeatedly appear throughout the broader Cuba “solidarity” infrastructure. What began decades ago through organizations such as ICAP and the Venceremos Brigade now operates through a modern network of nonprofits, media projects, international delegations, activist campaigns and political organizations.
The March convoy that brought Piker to Cuba represents one of the most visible examples of that system in action, say Cuban Americans challenging the regime.
And, to them, Piker’s “comrade,” Adler, represents a critical part of the network trying to keep communism alive in Cuba.
Fox News Digital’s Tessa Hoyos contributed to this report.
