CIA chief visits Havana as Cuba reels from fuel crisis, tensions rise

John Ratcliffe’s rare trip to Havana came with the island in the middle of a full-blown fuel emergency, and the message from Washington was unmistakable: Cuba cannot keep serving as a safe haven for U.S. adversaries and still expect normal engagement.

The CIA director met Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro, and the head of Cuba’s intelligence services inside the Cuban Interior Ministry, according to U.S. and Cuban officials. Cuba said the meeting was requested by the U.S. government. Ratcliffe also delivered Donald Trump’s warning that the United States would “seriously engage” on economic and security issues only if Cuba makes “fundamental changes.”

The timing made the visit far more than a courtesy stop. Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba’s energy and mines minister, said on May 13, 2026, that the country had run out of diesel and fuel oil. Reuters reported that Havana was enduring rolling blackouts lasting 24 hours or more in some areas, while Cuba’s power grid had entered a “critical” state. The outage crisis has already fueled protests in Havana, turning electricity, transport and daily logistics into a visible pressure point for Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government.

The security implications cut just as deep. Reuters said Ratcliffe’s trip appeared to be only the second visit by a CIA director to Cuba since the 1959 revolution, underscoring how unusual the channel was. NBC News reported that the Biden administration removed Cuba from the terrorism list in January 2025, before Trump reinstated it on his first day back in office. Cuban officials again objected to being kept on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and said the island does not pose a threat to U.S. national security.

Reuters also said the Trump administration has threatened tariffs on countries that supply fuel to Cuba, a move that has tightened pressure on the island just as shortages deepen. ABC News reported that Ratcliffe’s meetings centered on intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues, while the Cuban side kept pushing back on Washington’s framing. For Havana, the visit was not just rare. It was a signal that the old backchannel is open again, but under harsher terms, and in the middle of Cuba’s worst fuel squeeze in months.