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There are a lot of stories about Cuba floating around right now. Some are MSM outlets acting like they have a scoop on something that's been happening or rumored to be happening for months. Some are simply absurd and probably not true. Most aren't actually verified by the Donald Trump administration and come from anonymous sources. I'm not even going to bother with those today. I saw this happen in the final months before we captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Most of these reporters and media outlets didn't even care about these countries until they became newsworthy, and once they...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called out “incompetent communists” who are in charge of the Cuban government, as the United States is eyeing possible intervention regarding the island nation just off the coast of Florida. The country is facing nearly all-day electricity blackouts, as CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba earlier this month to meet with officials. There are also concerns about Cuba possibly wanting to act against the U.S. with military drones, according to Axios. “Cuba’s in a lot of trouble because, unfortunately for them, it’s run by a bunch of incompetent communists,” Rubio said. “Being a communist...

Skip to content An official website of the United States Government Here's how you know Close Menu State Department HomeState Department Home search Search Marco Rubio, Secretary of State May 20, 2026 Today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a video message to the people of Cuba, reaffirming the unwavering support of the United States for the Cuban people in their pursuit of freedom, dignity, and self-determination. In his remarks, Secretary Rubio addressed the continued suffering endured by the Cuban people after 67 years of tyranny, censorship, and human rights abuses by the illegitimate regime. A courtesy translation of the...

The United States on Wednesday charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of two small aircraft, marking the first time a senior figure from the communist regime has been accused before the courts of its neighboring enemy. Castro is accused of murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, and destruction of aircraft in connection with the deaths of four people. The charges represent a new escalation in Washington’s intense pressure campaign against the communist island, which has been under a U.S. embargo since 1962 and is now devastated by a severe economic crisis. Raúl Castro, now 94, was...

During the days of colonialism, it was gratifying for the British, Portuguese, Germans, and French to look at the world map and bask in all the colonies of each country. But the pretty blotches of red or blue or black hid an unpleasant fact. Many of those colonies were a drain on the mother country; they would put into those colonies far more than they got out of them. This was particularly obvious in those colonies that were principally desert. Spain also had colonies. Cubans tried to become independent but failed due to the eternal ineptitude of Cubans, whose only...

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said Monday that his country has no "aggressive plans or intentions" to attack any country including the United States – following a news report that the Communist-run island nation has acquired over 300 drones with possible plans to use them to attack American military vessels, the U.S. military base at Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, and possibly Key West, Florida. According to Axios, which based its report on classified intelligence that was shared by a U.S. official, the findings could become a pretext for U.S. military action against Cuba. The official said that the proximity of the...

On a scorching hot afternoon in Havana, the line outside the state bakery stretches down the block. Inside, the shelves are almost bare. A man in a faded baseball cap tells me he’s been waiting for two hours for bread that might not arrive. Across the street, a gleaming black SUV with tinted windows idles outside a hotel mostly reserved for foreigners. Its lobby is stocked with imported whiskey; the air-conditioning is turned up to Arctic levels. This is not an unusual juxtaposition in today’s Cuba. I walk through Central Havana with Antonio Rodríguez, a 60-year-old university history teacher who...

HAVANA (AP) — CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials including Raúl Castro’s grandson during a high-level visit to the island Thursday, Cuban and U.S. officials said. Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP. Ratcliffe was there “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,’' the CIA official said....

The U.S. is taking steps to indict Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of Fidel, in connection with the downing of planes 30 years ago, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The potential indictment — which would need to be approved by a grand jury — is expected to focus on Cuba's deadly 1996 shootdown of planes operated by humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. The plan comes as the U.S. heaps pressure on the Cuban government. The Trump administration has threatened heavy tariffs on any country...

Key Points Cuban Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy told state media the island nation has run out of fuel oil and diesel. Protests broke out in Havana on Wednesday as blackouts in the capital continued. The Trump administration, which has effectively blocked oil shipments to Cuba since January, has offered assistance in exchange for political reform. =========================================================== Cuba has run out of oil and diesel, its energy minister said on Wednesday, as an ongoing U.S. blockade starves the island nation of fuel. “The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the Cuban government turned down a $100 million humanitarian aid offer from the U.S., as the nation continues to grapple with the fallout of a devastating hurricane, a weakened economy and a prolonged fuel shortage. The U.S. provided $6 million in humanitarian aid to the island’s population in February that was distributed by Caritas, a nonprofit organization tied to the Catholic Church. The U.S. was prepared to send more, but the Cuban regime was “standing in the way,” according to Rubio, who told reporters in Italy that he discussed the delivery of...

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) announces she has been working with foreign countries to supply oil to Cuba, in defiance of President Trump. She says Trump's economic sanctions against the Communist regime are equivalent to illegally bombing the nation's infrastructure. VIDEO AT LINK...............

"He comes from a place called Cuba, which we will be taking over almost immediately. Now, Cuba's got problems. We'll finish one first. I like to finish a job. On the way back from Iran, we'll have one of our big, maybe the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, the biggest in the word. We'll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they'll say, 'Thank you very much. We give up.'"

President Donald Trump spoke at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in Florida on Friday night, and he seemed in a jocular mood. He had a wry smile on his face as he talked about the 67-year-old problem of communist Cuba, which is only 90 miles off Key West. The long-suffering residents have faced dire economic conditions for decades, and photographs show an island country still mired in the 1960s. Meanwhile, they have a long history of cozying up to our enemies. Maybe we’ll just take it, the president joked (?). Watch: 🚨 JUST IN: President Trump says he...

Senate Democrats on Tuesday tried to force a vote on a measure to prevent President Trump from launching a military attack on Cuba, as he repeatedly threatens action against the island. But Republicans blocked the procedural vote from moving forward, arguing that the U.S. isn't engaged in hostilities with Cuba. The issue is "moot," GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said. Democrats are seeking to get ahead of the president on Cuba after he took unilateral action against Venezuela and Iran. The resolution was introduced in March by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has also spearheaded the efforts...

The site Responsible Statecraft says some kind of deal with Cuba seems to be getting closer, though the U.S. might be running out of time to get the kind of deal it wanted. div class="thm-piano-mop">Even as U.S. President Donald Trump vows to usher in a “new dawn” for Cuba, possibly through military force, his administration is pursuing high-level diplomatic talks that seem to be producing some concrete results.Over the weekend, the New York Times and AP confirmed reporting by Axios that a U.S. government plane with a senior State Department delegation landed in Havana on April 10 for direct talks...

On April 10, something happened in Cuba that hasn't happened in a decade: a U.S. government plane touched down outside of Guantánamo Bay. We have confirmation of this from the Cuban regime via their official Communist Party propaganda newspaper, Granma. Several media outlets, including Fox News, CNN, and the Miami Herald, are also confirming it, based on statements from unnamed senior State Department officials. The State Department delegation — supposedly made up of assistant or deputy-level officials but not Marco Rubio himself — reportedly warned the Cuban regime that it has a very short window in which to make a...

It's not a done deal but the situation in Iran appears to be heading for an off-ramp just as the situation in Cuba might be gearing up. Here's what we know at the moment. First, U.S. officials quietly visited Cuba last Friday to directly make the case for reform.The meeting last Friday itself marks a diplomatic breakthrough because it's the first time a U.S. government plane has touched down since President Obama visited a decade ago in an effort for rapprochement...A senior State Department official told Axios that multiple meetings took place but would not name the participants, except for...

In UN Watch's press release, the NGO cited the UN's Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) recent nomination of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination. UN Watch demanded an explanation on Saturday from democratic countries for why they'd allowed "serial abusers of human rights" to be elected to key positions in the United Nations. In UN Watch's press release, the NGO cited the UN's Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) recent nomination of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination, which would include an active role in shaping policy on women's rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention, as...

At 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 14, Ana Belen Montes, a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), walked into a public telephone booth outside Washington's National Zoo and made two calls to pager numbers later traced by federal agents to Cuba's Directorate of General Intelligence (DGI). She already had compromised the identities of CIA agents, revealed U.S. military secrets and exposed the contents of classified files. But, as Montes sent repeated signals to her DGI handlers during the days immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the ...