This article examines how a high-profile livestreamer’s trip to Cuba became tied to a wider network of activist groups and nonprofits, probing the role of Progressive International and its coordinator David Adler in organizing the Nuestra América Convoy, the federal subpoenas that followed, and the longstanding channels used to channel influence into Cuba.
When sanctions pressure on Cuba increased earlier in the year, Hasan Piker described reaching out to David Adler: “I hit my friend up, David Adler, and I was like, ‘What do we do?'” He added that Adler replied, “And he’s like, ‘I’m already working on it.'” Those exchanges, Piker says, led directly to an organized convoy bringing activists and supplies to Havana.
The mission was billed as the Nuestra América Convoy and, by participants’ counts, included hundreds of delegates and roughly 40 tons of aid. Organizers combined charter flights, maritime flotillas and shipments carrying food, medicine and solar panels, and they framed the effort as a response to Cuba’s hardships amidst sanctions and blackouts.
Federal investigators later issued administrative subpoenas seeking records tied to the trip, directing requests at participants including Piker and other well-known activists. Officials reportedly asked for travel records, communications and financial documents to determine whether the logistics linked back to Cuban government entities or political operatives funding American movements.
Public scrutiny has centered on CodePink and tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, but a deep-dive analysis of livestreams and interviews points to Progressive International and its coordinator David Adler as central planners. Piker himself said he thinks the “real goal” of the Treasury Department investigation is Singham because he funds “political operations” in the U.S.
Critics warn that Progressive International masks hard political aims behind progressive language. “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 who has tracked Havana’s influence networks for years.
Martinez Fragela has mapped how activist groups, nonprofits and solidarity campaigns have long been used to build alliances and protect Havana’s political project across the Western Hemisphere. Her reporting finds this convoy fits into an older playbook of solidarity delegations, educational exchanges and labor brigades that serve both public relations and networking functions.
Progressive International traces back to organizing moments linked to figures like Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis, and Adler surfaced early among those organizers. Today Adler runs a U.S. nonprofit called Progressive International Exchange Inc., a small 501(c)(3) with modest reported revenue, while the wider Progressive International coalition coordinates actions out of Athens, Greece.
Adler’s background includes stints at Brown and Oxford and prior work with Varoufakis’ DiEM25 and Sanders’ foreign policy team, positioning him between activist circles and international leftist networks. At times Adler has drawn direct attention from state actors; Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly intervened after Adler was detained during a flotilla action, an episode widely circulated online.
Qatar’s Al Jazeera social posts ran Adler’s video and commentary: “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.” The same kind of messaging was amplified from Havana during the convoy, with a clear anti-U.S. angle.
Progressive International’s advisory roster includes figures with direct ties to Cuba’s ruling apparatus, a point critics stress as evidence of an operational relationship rather than mere solidarity. “That fact that Mariela Castro has a position of power with Progressive International is not insignificant,” Martinez Fragela said. “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.”
Piker has described himself as “good friends” with Progressive International organizers and called Adler “someone who I have the honor of calling a comrade.” Adler replied on Piker’s stream, “Thanks, brother. It’s a pleasure to be here.” Those public ties helped lend immediate credibility to the convoy as it touched down in Havana and met with senior Cuban officials.
The group that arrived in March included former political leaders, activists and labor organizers from dozens of countries, with organizers crediting Progressive International, CodePink and the ANSWER Coalition for arranging flights and aid. Piker filmed parts of the operation and later defended his trip as part of a “humanitarian” mission, saying he complied with required paperwork and federal procedures.
Investigators say their focus is not protected speech but whether communications, finances and logistics connected organizers or participants directly to Cuban state entities. The convoy, critics warn, looks like a modern iteration of a decades-old solidarity infrastructure, now updated with international coalitions, nonprofit vehicles and social media amplification.
The overlap between international campaigns on Cuba, Gaza and anti-sanctions activism shows a common organizational thread, and for Cuban Americans who have fought the regime for years, Adler represents a key node in a network they believe keeps the island’s one-party system afloat. To them, Piker’s “comrade,” Adler, represents a critical part of the network trying to keep communism alive in Cuba.
https://x.com/ajplus/status/2059305560101515726?s=46
