Narrator of Trump campaign’s Goya commercial once recited poem to Che Guevara

One day after President Donald Trump’s campaign released a TV ad attacking presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as a socialist sympathizer, Democrats hit back, noting the ad — which focused on calls to boycott Goya Foods and pulled at Cuban American heartstrings with images of the exile experience — is narrated by a Cuban actress who once recited a poem dedicated to infamous communist revolutionary Che Guevara.

“Susana Pérez, narrator of new Trump campaign fear-mongering, disinformation ad and supporter of Trump, is remembered as an actress in Cuba for her poems glorifying el Che,” tweeted Frank Mora, a Cuban-American Biden surrogate in Miami and former deputy secretary of defense for the western hemisphere.

Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Muñoz called the narration of the ad by someone who once praised Guevara “another example of the hypocrisy and inconsistencies by the Trump campaign and their hollow support for Florida Hispanics.”

The 30-second ad narrated in Spanish by Pérez, a telenovela actress in Cuba who has lived in Miami since 2008, sought to use a controversy over Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue’s support for Trump as an inroads to Miami’s Hispanic community — a key demographic in the battle for Florida this November.

The ad attacked Biden as “too extreme,” while images flashed across the screen of socialist Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, self-described Democratic-Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — and Guevara.

“Socialism. Cutting police funding. Getting rid of charter schools,” Pérez says in the ad. “And Joe Biden is too weak to defend us.”

Democrats in Miami quickly pointed out Wednesday that Pérez once recorded a flowery poem describing Guevara’s prowess: “No es que yo quiera darte pluma por pistola pero el poeta eres tú,” or “Not that I want to give you a pen for the gun, but the poet is you,” she said.

Pérez, 68, told el Nuevo Herald that she does not remember exactly when she recorded the poem, but that it was made at least 20 years ago, before she left Cuba. She said she recited it but did not write it. She said that, like other Cubans, she was “deceived” by Cuba’s repressive government.

“Whoever attacks me over this old recording only shows their desperation and a total and absolute ignorance about the Cuban dictatorship,” Pérez told el Nuevo. “We Cubans were deceived by the regime and we all know its tactics. That is why, like millions of other Cubans, I fled Cuba and I live in freedom where I can express myself freely. The left will never silence me.“

Ali Pardo, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, accused Democrats of “smearing” Pérez. Pardo noted that it’s not unusual for Cuba’s government to force its citizens to record flattering statements on behalf of revolutionary figures.

“As usual, the Democrats show how little they know about the way the Cuban regime pressures the Cuban people, artists like Susana, and even children to praise the revolution,” Pardo said in an emailed statement. “We are proud to have Susana’s support and as a Cuban American I am disgusted that the Democrats would resort to smearing an actress that is so beloved by my community.”

Republicans have for years attacked Democrats for espousing what they cast as socialist policies. In South Florida, where there are more than 1 million Cuban-Americans, the attacks often focus on Cuba, in some cases even leading Republicans to attack other Republicans over travel to the island.

Democratic Florida Sen. José Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, said the ad “demonstrates the hypocrisy of this administration when campaigning.” And Democrat Annette Taddeo, who was attacked as a socialist sympathizer during a special election for her Kendall-area state Senate seat in 2017, said that Perez’s past support for Guevara is further evidence that Republicans’ messaging about Democrats as socialist is “ridiculous.”

“Here’s The Trump’s campaign ad spokesperson Susana Pérez with a poem to Murderous Che!” Taddeo tweeted Wednesday, linking to YouTube videos purportedly of Pérez reciting the Guevara poem and of her visiting Cuba. “What about her trips to Cuba? Where’s the GOP outrage?”