Rubio Seeks CIA Partners for Cuba Change
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for a secret alliance as President Trump revived plans for US warships to stop near the Cuban coast.
By Priya Singh ·
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Cubans seeking political change to act immediately, urging them to form a private partnership with the Central Intelligence Agency. The call for a secret alliance landed alongside President Donald Trump's renewed threat to deploy American warships near the island.
Rubio posted the message to social media on Friday, addressing those who want to create positive change. He cited corruption and broken promises as reasons for the public's disappointment. The text contained a typo, using the word discrete instead of discreet. Rubio's parents left Cuba before the socialist revolution.
President Trump revived the naval idea during a rally for candidates in South Florida on Friday. He answered a question from the crowd about Cuba by describing a plan for ships returning from the Iran war to stop 50 yards off the coast. Trump said the sailors would raise their hands and that Rubio would enter to finish a deal. The president had not mentioned this specific strategy in recent months.
The timing of the announcements coincided with midterm elections. Voters in South Florida expressed concern about how the Iran conflict affected prices for gas and groceries. Trump suggested that Cuba might be the next target for intervention after the war in Iran ends. He told reporters in the Oval Office that he expected to be the president who finally intervenes.
Havana responded with mockery on Friday. Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio wrote on X that the US was publicly recruiting for the CIA. He compared the agency's efforts to selling a tube of toothpaste. Fernandez de Cossio suggested the comments revealed desperation within the US intelligence community.
Diplomatic relations have remained uneven. Rubio and other senior aides met with Cuban officials in recent months to explore better relations. The US delegation left unimpressed, and new sanctions followed those meetings. At the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump described Rubio as being deep in negotiations. He predicted a deal would happen without military force. However, the two governments clashed at the UN earlier this week over an annual vote condemning the US economic embargo.
Cuba has faced an economic and energy crisis since 2020. The country's gross domestic product has shrunk. Its 10 million residents have endured blackouts, food shortages, and high inflation. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans have emigrated to the United States in recent years.
Rubio had not discussed Cuba in depth for several weeks before the new post. In a September 29 interview with Sean Hannity, he said the country had already fallen. He described the economy as nonfunctional and the revolution as dead for 20 years. He did not mention a CIA operation in that interview.
Source: The Guardian
