CIA Director John Ratcliffe led a US delegation to Havana to meet with Cuban government officials on Thursday as the island faces a collapse in its energy sector amid deteriorating relations with the US.
“Following the US government’s request for a delegation chaired by CIA director John Ratcliffe to be received in Havana, the Revolutionary Directorate approved this visit and the meeting with its counterpart from the Ministry of the Interior,” says a statement from the Cuban government.
The meeting with the head of the CIA, the same agency that Cuba has long accused of sabotaging its revolution, comes as tensions between the former Cold War rivals have reached their highest point in decades.
Havana stated that its authorities emphasized at the meeting that Cuba “does not constitute a threat to US national security” and that there are no “legitimate reasons” to include it on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, as occurred during the Trump administration.
They also insisted that the country does not harbor, support or finance terrorists – something the US has long accused it of – and denied hosting foreign military or intelligence bases.
Two sources familiar with the meeting confirmed to CNN that the CIA director made the trip.
News of the meeting comes just two days after US President Donald Trump suggested his government was preparing to talk to Cuba, claiming the island was a “failed country” asking for help amid a growing economic crisis.
“Cuba is asking for help and let’s talk!!! In the meantime, I’m going to China!”, Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social.
The president’s comments come after his government recently intensified sanctions against Cuba and months after having, in practice, imposed one on the country. They also come after the US military increased intelligence gathering flights off the coast of Cuba.
Aside from a shipment of , Cuban officials say they have not received any oil shipments from the U.S. for more than four months.
The Russian donation at the end of March has been exhausted and the oil reserves that feed the island’s weakened electrical grid are practically exhausted, said the Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, in a televised address on Wednesday night (13).
The minister’s comments came just hours after the US State Department announced that the US was offering US$100 million in aid to the island to carry out “significant reforms in the Cuban communist system”.
The following day, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel suggested, in a post on the social network X, that Cuba would be open to receiving aid from the US, but that “the lifting or easing of the blockade” would be preferable.
“If there is truly a desire on the part of the United States government to provide aid… it will not encounter obstacles or ingratitude on the part of Cuba,” the president published.
“In fact, the damage could be mitigated much more easily and quickly by lifting or easing the blockade, as it is known that the humanitarian situation is coldly calculated and manipulated.”
As part of the aid package, the US offered to donate Starlink terminals, which would expand connectivity on the island and also break the Cuban government’s monopoly on the internet.
Last month, a high-level U.S. delegation met with Cuban government officials in Cuba as the Trump administration stepped up its efforts to pressure Havana into reaching a deal.
The State Department delegation emphasized that time was running out for Havana “to implement U.S.-supported implementations before circumstances worsen irreversibly,” a U.S. State Department official told CNN.
The US delegation highlighted “the need for Cuba to undertake significant economic and governance reforms to increase competitiveness, attract foreign investment and enable private sector-led growth,” according to the official.
The delegation also demanded that the Cuban government release political prisoners and increase “political freedoms,” the official said, and expressed concern “about the activities of foreign intelligence, military and terrorist groups with permission from the Cuban government less than 100 miles from American territory.”
It was the first time a US government aircraft had landed in Cuba – other than the US base at Guantánamo Bay – since 2016, when former President Barack Obama visited the country amid an effort to expand relations with Havana.
