Cuba: Rubio urges partnership with the CIA and Trump says he will deal with the island after Iran

Washington — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday called on those seeking change in Cuba to partner with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in a message posted on the State Department's official X account. “To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba — now is the time,” Rubio wrote. “Seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.”

The message came minutes after President Donald Trump addressed the issue at a rally in Fort Myers, Florida. “We'll take care of Cuba on our way back from Iran… then we're going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal,” Trump told the crowd, according to Reuters. The president added that Navy ships returning from Iran could stop about 50 yards off Cuba's coast.

The U.S. government has stated that its goal is to change Cuba's communist government. Earlier this year it imposed an oil blockade that, according to Reuters, has put the island under severe strain, with fuel shortages and blackouts worsened by failing infrastructure. Washington has maintained an embargo on Cuba for more than 60 years, and pressure on Havana has increased since U.S. forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a raid in January.

Havana's reaction was swift: Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío wrote on X that there must be “a great deal of desperation or misery” within the agency for it to be forced to “sell its services like a tube of toothpaste.” The CIA, for its part, released a Spanish-language video with instructions for contacting it safely. U.N. human rights experts have condemned the oil blockade as a violation of international law, while Cuba's foreign minister told the General Assembly last month that Cuba would always be open to dialogue. Trump, meanwhile, predicted last month that the two countries would reach an agreement and that he did not think military action would be necessary.

Photo: The Business Standard

Source: Reuters