CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba on Thursday to meet with top Cuban officials, a CIA official told MS NOW.
Ratcliffe, the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel to Havana since President Donald Trump returned to office, met with Raulito Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of former leader Raúl Castro; Minister of Interior Lazaro Alvarez Casas; and the head of Cuba’s intelligence services.
The meeting comes amid heightened tensions between the two countries, including Trump’s threats of military action and sweeping U.S. sanctions that have placed additional strain on Cuba’s struggling economy.
According to the CIA official, Ratcliffe was sent to personally deliver Trump’s message that the U.S. is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.
It is unclear what specific changes the Trump administration is seeking.
During the meeting, Ratcliffe and Cuban officials discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues, according to the official. The discussions took place against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s position that Cuba can no longer be a safe haven for U.S. adversaries in the Western Hemisphere.
Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself, have repeatedly criticized the communist government and threatened foreign intervention.
The CIA official said Ratcliffe emphasized that Trump prefers dialogue, while also warning the administration would enforce redlines. According to the official, Ratcliffe told Cuban leaders that they must decide whether to seize this moment with the U.S. or continue down an unsustainable path that only leads to deeper isolation and instability.
In addition to the U.S. energy blockade driven by Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba, the U.S. expanded sanctions on Cuba on May 1 to include Cuban companies, institutions and officials, threatening to freeze their U.S.-based assets. The administration’s moves against Cuba further hamper the country already burdened by broader, long-standing restrictions imposed since the 1960s following the revolution.
In recent months, Cuba has suffered nationwide blackouts, plunging nearly 10 million people into darkness and disrupting access to food and water. The New York Times reported in March that the blackouts severely affected hospitals, causing deaths that would otherwise be preventable. Cuba has run out of oil and diesel as of Wednesday, Cuban Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said.
The U.S. has offered Cuba $100 million in “direct humanitarian assistance” to be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other groups, the State Department announced Wednesday.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who denounced the most recent sanctions as “collective punishment,” cautiously welcomed the offer.
“We expect it would be free from political maneuvers or any attempt to take advantage of the shortages and hardships of a people under harassment,” Rodriguez wrote on X.
“The best assistance that the US government could offer to the noble Cuban people in this or any other moment would be to de-escalate the measures of the energy, economic, commercial and financial blockade, which has been tightened like never before during the last few months and severely affects all sectors of the Cuban economy and society.”
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