Radical activism has come to define the Biden administration, and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland could be the poster child. For instance, just last week, the former congresswoman participated in a bizarre video with a drag queen to promote the false narrative that “queer rights are more under attack than ever.” Meanwhile, the connections of Haaland’s activist 29-year-old daughter, Somah, have become a major cause for concern, leading to multiple ethics complaints against the secretary over fears of undue influence.
In September, the bilingual Hispanic website ADN America documented Somah Haaland’s relationship with a Cuban solidarity group linked to the communist regime’s intelligence apparatus. The connection stems from Somah’s work for the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), a far-left, Albuquerque-based climate group that often advocates issues on behalf of the Laguna Pueblo. As a member of the federally recognized tribe, Secretary Haaland became the first American Indian to lead the agency responsible for U.S.-tribal relations.
The PAA, ADN reported last month, “openly associates with the Venceremos Brigade (VB), a U.S.-based organization that facilitates trips for young Americans to visit Cuba, where they are reportedly greeted and groomed by Cuban intelligence agents.” ADN continued:
Somah Haaland began working with the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA) in 2020, a New Mexico indigenous rights group that openly associates with the VB, and whose executive director, Julia Bernal, traveled with the group to Cuba the year before where it was hosted by the Institute of Friendship Along with the Peoples (ICAP), a regime sponsored organization led by one of Cuba’s most notorious spy, Fernando González Llort–-and a former member of the Wasp Network who was sentenced to prison in the U.S. for espionage.
The Venceremos Brigade has a history of “targeting American activists,” according to the Cuban outlet. Somah Haaland is a natural target.
“The Biden administration’s embrace of radical special interests gets worse the deeper you go. A hard look into the Pueblo Action Alliance, a group with deep personal and professional ties to Interior Secretary Haaland and her daughter, raises several additional concerns that may implicate national security,” Tom Jones, the president of the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), told The Federalist. “The group’s connections to hostile Marxist foreign governments are simply one more example of radical ties to high level White House officials that need to be taken seriously.”
In February, the nonprofit government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PTT) released emails revealing PAA’s involvement in what was, by Democrats’ standards, an “insurrection” at the Interior Department two years ago. Recently uncovered photos AAF shared with The Federalist suggest Somah was involved in another turbulent demonstration on government property in Washington, D.C., the same week activists stormed the agency her mother leads.
In October 2021, PAA was a leading group among a coalition of organizations known as “Build Back Fossil Free,” which traveled to the nation’s capital for five days of demonstrations. Security personnel at the Interior Department sustained “multiple injuries,” according to an agency spokeswoman, as rioters tried to force their way into the building. Earlier in the week, protesters with the group also stormed the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which attracted far less attention but left agency security scrambling to contain the chaos.
Photos of a demonstrator at the GAO match an outfit Secretary Haaland’s daughter wore while traveling in D.C.
The Interior Department did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
Somah’s work with the PAA has led lawmakers on Capitol Hill to probe recent decisions by the interior secretary for conflicts of interest.
In June, Secretary Haaland shut down oil and gas opportunities in the areas surrounding New Mexico’s Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. The 20-year moratorium on new leases within a 10-mile radius of the park was a longtime goal of the PAA, which produced a video opposing development in the region that featured the elder Haaland. The film was narrated by Somah and was the subject of an ethics complaint by Protect the Public’s Trust in August.
“Given her past statements, participation in this film, and her child’s active role in lobbying against oil and gas development in the region, reasonable observers could question Secretary Haaland’s impartiality in the matter,” the group wrote in a letter to the Interior Department inspector general.
Secretary Haaland’s oil and gas moratorium will cost the Navajo Nation, a rival tribe in the region that lobbied in favor of oil and gas development, $194 million over the next two decades. Weeks after the announcement, House Republicans launched their own probe into the decision, citing clear conflicts of interest.
“Prior to joining the Biden Administration as Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Secretary Haaland was evidently involved with the Pueblo Action Alliance,” 11 lawmakers wrote. “Secretary Haaland has purportedly met with PAA leaders during her time as Secretary of the Interior to discuss PAA’s opposition to oil and gas production on federal lands.”
