Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier said on Tuesday that his office had issued the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a socialist political organization in the U.S. with ties to various Democrat politicians, a subpoena over the organization’s alleged links to U.S. adversaries such as China and Cuba.
“We’re examining foreign contributions – including from Cuba and China – ties to their delegations and travel fund solicitations. FL law requires transparency. We will hold those who break the law accountable,” Uthmeier posted to his X account on Tuesday.
Outgoing Florida Governor Ron Desantis, who is reportedly planning to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, was quick to endorse the move.
“If the DSA is raking in foreign money from communist countries, Florida will hold the DSA accountable,” DeSantis said on Tuesday.
The DSA largely functions as a political and activistic pressure group; the organization has affiliate chapters in all 50 U.S. states and boasts over 100,000 members.
Prominent DSA-endorsed Democrat politicians include Congresswoman and potential 2028 presidential challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The DSA has already been accused by the federal U.S. government of allegiance to Cuba, a longstanding ideological adversary of Washington’s.
In July, the U.S. state department released a comprehensive report detailing the extent of supposed Cuban espionage and subversion campaigns on U.S. soil., in which it said the following of the DSA:
“The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) serves as a particularly potent illustration of the ideological victory of Cuba’s effort to position itself as the spiritual capital of Third Worldist radicalism.”
“Today, it [the DSA] maintains a fierce, almost religious commitment to the cause of the Cuban regime – not because the group is controlled by Cuban agents, per se, but because that commitment is now simply the de facto policy orthodoxy on the American far left,” the document continued.
DSA members routinely advocate for an end to U.S. sanctions against Cuba. On the DSA’s own website, a page is dedicated to the DSA Cuba Solidarity Working Group [DSACSWG], which describes itself as “fighting to end the blockade, lift sanctions, and build real solidarity with the Cuban people.
“As part of the DSA International Committee’s Americas Subcommittee, we push for engagement over isolation, cooperation over coercion, and policies that put people first,” the DSACSWG claims.
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the two most prominent DSA-backed politicians – Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez – have both previously released statements which criticized Cuba as a dictatorship and a state which represses fundamental freedoms, but which were also critical of U.S. economic sanctions against the island.
Furthermore, the DSA’s support for an end to U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba, which began over six decades ago and were significantly intensified by the Trump administration this year, does not equate to the DSA being infiltrated by entities affiliated with the Cuban regime, something which the state department’s report itself appears to recognize.
“In contrast to organizations like the Venceremos Brigade or the National Lawyers Guild, the DSA was not shaped by the direct and tangible influence of the Cuban government itself. Instead … it freely embraced the policy agenda and worldview of its own accord,” the report reads.
The document nevertheless criticized the DSA’s external ties to the Cuban government, citing the visits of DSA delegations to the island, its members’ meetings with Cuban government officials including Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, its criticisms of U.S. policy towards Cuba and the very existence of the DSACSWG as evidence of the DSA’s “expanded … relationship with – and support for – the Cuban communist project.”
Various experts and politicians condemned the findings of the report as a potential pretext to justify a potential U.S. military operation against Cuba and delegitimize the domestic opponents of the Republican Trump administration as potential foreign agents.
American University Professor and U.S.-Cuba relations expert Dr Philip Brenner said the document “attack[ed] domestic groups that are gaining popularity, especially the Democratic Socialists of America … setting up a kind of red scare in preparation for … the midterm elections.”
However, the allegations implicit in this newest investigation by Floridian authorities go further than the state department’s accusations.
Uthmeier said that his office is actively “examining whether DSA accepted contributions or support from foreign sources of concern, including the regimes in Cuba and China.”
The DSA has so far issued no comment regarding the subpoena.
Florida state law bans groups, which would include any Floridian chapters of the DSA, from “solicit[ing] or accept[ing] contributions or anything of value from a foreign source of concern.”
According to the southern state’s law, countries of “concern” include the “People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Cuba, the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro, or the Syrian Arab Republic.”
Despite supporting continuing U.S. sanctions on Cuba and maintaining a very critical stance of Cuba’s regime, Florida State Senator and Pro Tempore President of the Florida Senate Ana María Rodríguez told Latin America Reports that she was uncertain of the connection between the DSA and Cuba.
“I don’t know exactly what the connection is, or if there is even a connection … there could be … I think these are just people within our country who went to a more extreme position. I was not aware that there was any kind of connection to the government of Cuba,” the Republican Floridian politician said.
This is not the first time Attorney General Uthmeier has had Cuba in his sights: the Florida official recently issued an arrest warrant for former Cuban President Rául Castro over the Cuban leader’s alleged role in the destruction of two civilian planes in 1996.
On that particular issue, Senator María Rodríguez had a much more resolutely supportive position.
“It is important to show solidarity and not let cases go by without pursuing legal justice … he [Uthmeier] wanted to convey his message to the Cuban Americans: ‘I have your back, I’m not going anywhere and I’ll be part of the team that pursues the prosecution of this criminal.’”
Featured Image: Members of the DSA protesting in Milwaukee in June 2026.
Image Credit: 7peg via Wikimedia Commons
License: Creative Commons Licenses
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