Luxury Cuba Trip – Private Meeting With Díaz-Canel Exposed

Man in suit wearing a tricolor sash seated at a podium — Photo: Shutterstock

A top advisor to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote a secret diary about his trip to Communist Cuba, and it shows him living in five-star luxury while ordinary Cubans hunted birds and pets just to eat.

Quick Take

Danny Valdez, a friend and advisor to Mamdani who hosted a fundraiser for his campaign, joined a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) trip to Cuba in October 2023.
Valdez kept a now-deleted blog called “The Cuba Diaries,” describing a private two-hour meeting with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The delegation stayed at the five-star Grand Aston Havana hotel while Valdez admitted feeling “uncomfortable” around Cuban hunger.
DSA’s own trip report says the group organized the journey around opposing the United States embargo on Cuba.
A separate report ties DSA to a Cuban state propaganda program that lobbies members of Congress.

Advisor’s Diary Surfaces Years Later

The New York Post uncovered a blog post Danny Valdez wrote called “The Cuba Diaries,” documenting his 2023 trip with roughly 40 to 44 members of the Democratic Socialists of America. Valdez has since become a close advisor to Mayor Mamdani and hosted a fundraiser for his campaign. The blog post was later taken down, but the Post obtained and reported on its contents.

Valdez wrote that the delegation met privately with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel for just over two hours on the third day of their trip. He called it proof that Cuba’s one-party Communist government saw the socialist group as “potential partners” in ending the United States embargo. The delegation also met Fidel Castro’s niece and other figures tied to the Cuban state.

Five-Star Hotel While Cubans Starved

Valdez described staying at the Grand Aston Havana, a five-star, 600-room hotel with a rooftop pool, complete with air-conditioned rides and plenty of food and water. He reportedly called the whole experience “abnormally luxurious”. For a group claiming to study the hardships of communism, the accommodations tell a very different story than the one they went looking for.

Valdez’s own writing admitted the awkward contrast. He described delegates eating well in hotels and restaurants while knowing that hunger had pushed some Cubans to hunt birds, iguanas, and even pets just to survive. He said this made him feel “uncomfortable.” That discomfort didn’t stop the trip from continuing as planned.

DSA Admits the Real Goal Was Fighting the Embargo

DSA’s own published report confirms the trip was no simple tourist visit. The International Committee organized the five-day delegation specifically around opposition to the United States embargo on Cuba, coordinating with a group called Not Just Tourists to deliver supplies. Valdez told the Washington Examiner that his organization opposes sanctions because they supposedly make life harder for Cubans and hurt Cuban-American families.

That framing matters because it shows the trip wasn’t just an innocent cultural exchange. It was a political mission by American activists working against their own country’s foreign policy, guided by a Communist government eager to use them for better press. The Washington Examiner separately reported that groups like this have been tied to a Cuban state propaganda program that builds relationships with members of Congress.

What the Evidence Doesn’t Prove

To be fair, nothing in the available record shows Valdez or the delegation made any secret or illegal agreement with Cuba’s government. DSA’s public materials describe the trip as “fact-finding” and “solidarity,” and Valdez has openly said his goal was challenging the embargo, not opposing the United States itself. The full, original diary post has not been recovered word-for-word, so some context from the deleted blog remains unclear.

Still, the facts that are confirmed speak for themselves. A man who now whispers in the ear of New York City’s mayor spent five days being wined and dined by a Communist dictatorship, sat down privately with its president, and came home pushing the same anti-embargo line Havana has wanted Washington to adopt for decades. Voters in New York deserve to know exactly whose advice is shaping their mayor’s thinking on foreign policy and socialism.

https://t.co/vpdSGtiTxf A friend and advisor to socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with the president of Cuba during a luxe trip to the communist nation — where they conspired to subvert US foreign policy, according to a since-deleted travel diary obtained by The…

— pat (@patgill69033215) October 11, 2026

Mamdani’s administration has leaned heavily on figures from the democratic socialist movement, and this episode raises fresh questions about just how far that influence reaches. Conservatives watching City Hall should keep a close eye on who sits at the mayor’s table, and what causes they’ve championed long before they ever got there.