In Charlottesville, Virginia, Anne Garland Mahler, a professor of Latin American studies at the University of Virginia, has raised concerns about the Trump administration’s July 20, 2026 State Department report titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” Mahler says the report reproduces large sections of her 2023 book, From the Tricontinental to the Global South: Race, Radicalism, and Transnational Solidarity, without citation and then twists the original analysis to back a claim that Cuba is orchestrating a wave of left‑wing terrorism on American soil.
Background on the Tricontinental movement
The Tricontinental, formally known as the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (OSPAAAL), was founded in 1966 when representatives from 82 nations gathered in Havana. While some delegates were well‑known political leaders, most were lesser‑known activists, including a handful from the United States. The organization grew out of the Afro‑Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization, an effort to create a third bloc outside the U.S.–Soviet Cold War rivalry.
Mahler’s research highlights that the movement’s origins were rooted in Black political networks across the Americas. Afro‑Cuban intellectual Walterio Carbonell helped shape the idea, linking anti‑colonial and anti‑racist struggles with a broader vision of self‑determination. Over four decades, OSPAAAL produced magazines, posters, films, and other cultural material in multiple languages, fostering solidarity with the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and anti‑apartheid activists in South Africa.
Report’s use of the scholarship
The State Department’s document mirrors Mahler’s narrative about the Tricontinental’s historical relationship with the U.S. civil‑rights movement, yet it reinterprets that relationship to suggest a contemporary Cuban conspiracy against the United States. Mahler notes that the report omits citations and alters the original conclusions, turning a critique of U.S. imperialism into an accusation that Cuba is backing “unprecedented wave of left‑wing terrorism.”
According to Mahler, the Tricontinental’s criticism was directed at specific U.S. foreign‑policy actions—such as the Vietnam War and interventions in Latin America—not at the American people. The organization’s publications regularly featured U.S. civil‑rights leaders, underscoring a solidarity with ordinary citizens seeking full rights and freedoms.
Diverse views within the movement
Even within OSPAAAL, opinions on Cuba’s government varied. Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael, who served on the organization’s executive secretariat, later criticized Cuba’s restrictions on anti‑racist organizing, arguing that socialist reforms had not fully eliminated racial inequities. Similarly, NAACP activist Robert F. Williams, who lived in Cuba from 1961‑1965, expressed mixed views after his experience.
Mahler argues that these nuanced positions are lost in the State Department’s report, which presents a binary view: either the U.S. left is a threat, or it is merely defending Cuban sovereignty against U.S. embargoes. She describes the administration’s framing as “political theater” rather than a balanced historical assessment.
Response and broader implications
The State Department did not comment on whether Mahler’s book was used as a source. The episode raises questions about how scholarly work is employed in policy documents and whether the administration is accurately representing historical movements when shaping foreign‑policy narratives.
For readers interested in the full context, Mahler’s original article appears in The Conversation, a nonprofit news outlet that emphasizes fact‑based analysis.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
