Why 'Comrade Kamala' memes are spreading among Latino exiles

In Latino exile communities crossed the country, a question is being asked: is Kamala Harris truly a communist?

The vice-president has been the taxable of galore misleading claims that she is simply a socialist oregon communist since becoming the Democratic campaigner for president, according to the US’s largest Spanish-language fact-checker Factchequeado.

Experts accidental these claims capitalise connected "genuine fears" held by immoderate voters who fled repression successful countries similar Cuba and Venezuela.

In 1 viral video, Kamala Harris and her moving mate Tim Walz look to airs for a selfie successful beforehand of a motion for Revolutionary Communists of America, a far-left group.

The video was fake. The inheritance had been doctored by a radical of Donald Trump’s supporters known arsenic the Dilley Meme Team.

Their archetypal station had much than 420,000 views, but it was shared by galore Spanish accounts - and repeated offline.

“It’s everywhere, this doubt: ‘Is this idiosyncratic a communist?’” Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, a taste discourse strategist from southbound Florida, told the BBC.

She was listening to the Spanish-language vigor presumption La Nueva Poderosa successful Miami erstwhile she heard the hosts discussing the mendacious meme.

“Did you spot them lasting successful beforehand of that picture? They person nary shame successful who they are,” the hosts said.

She contacted the presumption to constituent retired it was a fake video. The hosts aboriginal said connected aerial that they wanted to clarify the communicative was “not true” but that “doesn’t instrumentality distant from the world that Kamala is simply a Marxist”.

There are astir 36.2 cardinal eligible Latino voters successful America, astir 14.7% of the US electorate, and galore unrecorded successful cardinal plaything states similar Nevada and Arizona, which makes them a coveted demographic for some campaigns.

They are by nary means a homogeneous voting demographic, but historically, Latinos person tended to favour the Democrats. In 2020, 44% voted for Joe Biden, with lone 16% voting for Trump. But polls amusement Republicans person gained crushed this predetermination cycle, with galore factors cited including the economy, immigration, and termination rights.

And for immoderate immigrants, concerns astir America contiguous bespeak their past experiences successful their location countries.

Political messages informing astir “socialism” oregon “communism” person been peculiarly prevalent successful communities with ample Cuban and Venezuelan populations, similar successful southbound Florida, experts noted.

These expats are particularly susceptible to misinformation astir communism due to the fact that of the trauma they experienced fleeing repression, said Samantha Barrios, a Venezuelan-American based successful Miami, Florida who votes Democrat.

She accused right-leaning Spanish media of utilizing these presumption to “scare Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans” due to the fact that of “the main crushed that we near our countries, trying to permission these regimes”.

For some, their disapproval of the Democrats is grounded successful opinions that the US authorities has not provided a pugnacious capable effect to governmental repression successful Cuba oregon Venezuela.

But Ms Barrio is wary of the mode these morganatic concerns are being weaponised done “false claims” that Kamala Harris herself is simply a communist.

Ms Pérez-Verdía agrees, but she besides criticised the Democrat run for not doing capable to code their concerns.

“Don’t laughter disconnected people’s fears. It’s truly disrespectful. People person genuine fears, they came to the United States, they near everything behind. If they person doubts you should code their doubts.”

Not each claims exclusively people Latinos, said the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA), which monitors much than 1,300 WhatsApp groups and much than 200 Telegram channels successful Spanish and Portuguese.

And notable right-wing and pro-Trump actors and influencers person pushed a “fear of socialism” since 2020, the organisation found.

But portion Joe Biden was accused of being a communist erstwhile helium ran for president, Factchequeado’s founder, Laura Zommer, said their information checkers had “never” seen this measurement of AI and doctored images before.

Some of this misinformation has been dispersed by Trump himself, oregon his high-profile supporters.

Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump, posted a faked representation of Kamala Harris successful a reddish azygous emblazoned with the communist hammer and sickle, captioned “Kamala vows to beryllium a communist dictator connected time one. Can you judge she wears that outfit!?”

It had much than 83.9 cardinal views. A reverse representation hunt suggests this was the earliest posting of the representation connected X.

Donald Trump shared an AI representation of Harris addressing a communist assemblage that had astatine slightest 81.5 cardinal views connected X, but it was not the archetypal posting of this image.

Posts linking Harris to communism truly took disconnected online aft the statesmanlike debate, according a study by the DDIA prepared for the BBC.

During the debate, Donald Trump called Kamala Harris and her begetter a “Marxist” and suggested she would crook the US into “Venezuela connected steroids” done her migration policies.

After the debate, “Marxista” trended connected societal media and searches for "Marxist" connected Google successful the US jumped 1000% successful 17 hours.

Factchequeado said the astir searched question successful Spanish aft the statement was: "Who is Kamala Harris’s father?"

The DDIA said 2 claims particularly gained traction successful the week aft the statesmanlike debate. In one, a fabricated papers falsely claiming Kamala Harris is simply a subordinate of the Russian communist enactment went viral, according to Meta’s ain metrics. Another claim, that Harris is “Kamarada [Comrade] Kamala”, arose from a Trump code successful which helium portrays her arsenic a “communist comrade”.

BBC Verify traced the rank paper representation to a website which allows radical to marque fake communist enactment documents.

The rank number, stamp and different details connected the paper were identical to a template connected the tract for making a enactment rank card.

Posts sharing the fake image, which was archetypal shared successful August, person been viewed much than fractional a cardinal times.

The Democratic Party is not a socialist party, nor does it assertion to enactment communist regimes. But immoderate high-profile members similar Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez person described their governmental views arsenic “democratic socialist”.

When she was a California senator, Harris co-sponsored Sanders’ Medicare for All bill, which would person brought a single-payer wellness attraction strategy to the US. She has since said she nary longer supports a single-payer health-care system, which would person abolished backstage insurers.

She has ne'er advocated for communist policies, specified arsenic the abolition oregon seizure of backstage property.

Kamala Harris’s program to crackdown connected “price gouging” astatine supermarkets has been cited successful Spanish societal media posts arsenic “communist”. Mr Musk claimed it would mean “empty shelves, conscionable similar successful Venezuela”.

Her proposal, which would impact asking the commercialized committee to analyse terms spikes acold supra the summation successful the outgo of production, is simply a acold outcry from the wide terms controls seen successful Cuba and Venezuela that were successful portion blamed for terrible nutrient shortages.

But for immoderate voters who fled those countries, their fearfulness lies successful thing they consciousness remotely resembles policies from the countries they came from.

Duke Machado, who runs a Latino Republican Facebook leafage from Texas called Latino Strikeforce, said helium fears that if the Democrats win, the state would beryllium connected a slippery slope to communism.

“If we’re not careful, we’ll descent into Cuba and Venezuela. Their eventual extremity is to destruct capitalism."

When asked if it was liable to stock fears that the Democrats could crook the US into a communist state with his followers, including Latino exiles who had fled repression, helium said: “It’s not irresponsible astatine all. I spot it arsenic a duty.”

With further reporting by Kayleen Devlin from BBC Verify