Why ‘Comrade Kamala’ memes are taking off among Latino exiles

In Latino exile communities throughout the nation, a query is being requested: is Kamala Harris actually a communist?

The vice-president has been the topic of quite a few deceptive claims that she is a socialist or communist since changing into the Democratic candidate for president, in response to the US’s largest Spanish-language fact-checker Factchequeado.

Specialists say these claims capitalise on “real fears” held by some voters who fled repression in international locations like Cuba and Venezuela.

In a single viral video, Kamala Harris and her working mate Tim Walz seem to pose for a selfie in entrance of a signal for Revolutionary Communists of America, a far-left group.

The video was faux. The background had been doctored by a gaggle of Donald Trump’s supporters often called the Dilley Meme Group.

Their unique submit had greater than 420,000 views, however it was shared by many Spanish accounts – and repeated offline.

“It’s in all places, this doubt: ‘Is that this particular person a communist?’” Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, a cultural context strategist from south Florida, instructed the BBC.

She was listening to the Spanish-language radio station La Nueva Poderosa in Miami when she heard the hosts discussing the false meme.

“Did you see them standing in entrance of that image? They haven’t any disgrace in who they’re,” the hosts mentioned.

She contacted the station to level out it was a faux video. The hosts later mentioned on air that they needed to make clear the story was “not true” however that “doesn’t take away from the truth that Kamala is a Marxist”.

There are almost 36.2 million eligible Latino voters in America, about 14.7% of the US voters, and plenty of reside in key swing states like Nevada and Arizona, which makes them a coveted demographic for each campaigns.

They’re certainly not a homogeneous voting demographic, however traditionally, Latinos have tended to favour the Democrats. In 2020, 44% voted for Joe Biden, with solely 16% voting for Trump. However polls present Republicans have gained floor this election cycle, with many components cited together with the financial system, immigration, and abortion rights.

And for some immigrants, considerations about America at this time replicate their previous experiences of their dwelling international locations.

Political messages warning about “socialism” or “communism” have been notably prevalent in communities with massive Cuban and Venezuelan populations, like in south Florida, consultants famous.

These expats are particularly susceptible to misinformation about communism due to the trauma they skilled fleeing repression, mentioned Samantha Barrios, a Venezuelan-American primarily based in Miami, Florida who votes Democrat.

She accused right-leaning Spanish media of utilizing these phrases to “scare Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans” due to “the primary cause that we left our international locations, making an attempt to go away these regimes”.

For some, their criticism of the Democrats is grounded in opinions that the US authorities has not offered a troublesome sufficient response to political repression in Cuba or Venezuela.

However Ms Barrio is cautious of the best way these authentic considerations are being weaponised by “false claims” that Kamala Harris herself is a communist.

Ms Pérez-Verdía agrees, however she additionally criticised the Democrat marketing campaign for not doing sufficient to deal with their considerations.

“Don’t snort off individuals’s fears. It’s actually disrespectful. Folks have real fears, they got here to america, they left every part behind. If they’ve doubts you must tackle their doubts.”

Not all claims solely goal Latinos, mentioned the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA), which screens greater than 1,300 WhatsApp teams and greater than 200 Telegram channels in Spanish and Portuguese.

And notable right-wing and pro-Trump actors and influencers have pushed a “concern of socialism” since 2020, the organisation discovered.

However whereas Joe Biden was accused of being a communist when he ran for president, Factchequeado’s founder, Laura Zommer, mentioned their reality checkers had “by no means” seen this quantity of AI and doctored photos earlier than.

A few of this misinformation has been unfold by Trump himself, or his high-profile supporters.

Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump, posted a faked picture of Kamala Harris in a crimson uniform emblazoned with the communist hammer and sickle, captioned “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Are you able to consider she wears that outfit!?”

It had greater than 83.9 million views. A reverse picture search suggests this was the earliest posting of the picture on X.

Donald Trump shared an AI picture of Harris addressing a communist crowd that had at the very least 81.5 million views on X, however it was not the primary posting of this picture.

Posts linking Harris to communism actually took off on-line after the presidential debate, in accordance a report by the DDIA ready for the BBC.

In the course of the debate, Donald Trump referred to as Kamala Harris and her father a “Marxist” and steered she would flip the US into “Venezuela on steroids” by her immigration insurance policies.

After the talk, “Marxista” trended on social media and searches for “Marxist” on Google within the US jumped 1000% in 17 hours.

Factchequeado mentioned essentially the most searched query in Spanish after the talk was: “Who’s Kamala Harris’s father?”

The DDIA mentioned two claims particularly gained traction within the week after the presidential debate. In a single, a fabricated doc falsely claiming Kamala Harris is a member of the Russian communist get together went viral, in response to Meta’s personal metrics. One other declare, that Harris is “Kamarada [Comrade] Kamala”, arose from a Trump speech through which he portrays her as a “communist comrade”.

BBC Confirm traced the membership card picture to an internet site which permits individuals to make faux communist get together paperwork.

The membership quantity, stamp and different particulars on the cardboard had been equivalent to a template on the positioning for making a celebration membership card.

Posts sharing the faux picture, which was first shared in August, have been seen greater than half 1,000,000 occasions.

The Democratic Celebration shouldn’t be a socialist get together, nor does it declare to help communist regimes. However some high-profile members like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have described their political beliefs as “democratic socialist”.

When she was a California senator, Harris co-sponsored Sanders’ Medicare for All invoice, which might have introduced a single-payer well being care system to the US. She has since mentioned she now not helps a single-payer health-care system, which might have abolished personal insurers.

She has by no means advocated for communist insurance policies, such because the abolition or seizure of personal property.

Kamala Harris’s plan to crackdown on “worth gouging” at supermarkets has been cited in Spanish social media posts as “communist”. Mr Musk claimed it might imply “empty cabinets, identical to in Venezuela”.

Her proposal, which might contain asking the commerce fee to research worth spikes far above the rise in the price of manufacturing, is a far cry from the widespread worth controls seen in Cuba and Venezuela that had been partly blamed for extreme meals shortages.

However for some voters who fled these international locations, their concern lies in something they really feel remotely resembles insurance policies from the international locations they got here from.

Duke Machado, who runs a Latino Republican Fb web page from Texas referred to as Latino Strikeforce, mentioned he fears that if the Democrats win, the nation could be on a slippery slope to communism.

“If we’re not cautious, we’ll slide into Cuba and Venezuela. Their final purpose is to destroy capitalism.”

When requested if it was accountable to share fears that the Democrats might flip the US right into a communist nation along with his followers, together with Latino exiles who had fled repression, he mentioned: “It’s not irresponsible in any respect. I see it as an obligation.”

With extra reporting by Kayleen Devlin from BBC Confirm