Ratcliffe meets Cuban officials in surprise Havana visit amid tensions

John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Havana and sat down with some of Cuba’s most powerful security figures, a rare direct contact that underscored how much pressure has built beneath an already hostile U.S.-Cuba relationship.

A CIA official said Ratcliffe met Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas, and the head of Cuban intelligence services. The official said Ratcliffe delivered President Donald Trump’s message that the United States was prepared to engage seriously on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba made fundamental changes.

The talks centered on intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security, an unusually broad agenda for two governments that have spent years trading accusations. The U.S. side warned that Cuba could no longer serve as a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere, a line that reflects Washington’s sharper national-security posture toward the island and its concern about who may be able to operate there.

Havana confirmed the meeting in a statement read on state broadcaster and said Washington had requested it. Cuban officials said the talks took place in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations and argued that Cuba does not pose a threat to U.S. national security. They also said there are no legitimate reasons to keep Cuba on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, and insisted the island has never supported hostile activity against the United States.

The visit came as Cuba struggled through a severe economic and energy crisis. The island has been hit by widespread power outages and an island-wide fuel shortage after its Russian oil supply ran out, according to Cuban Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy. That kind of pressure does more than darken homes and stall transportation. It also intensifies the social strain that can push migration and complicate regional security planning for Washington.

The meeting also followed months of quiet contacts between the two sides. Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro previously held a secret meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February in St. Kitts, and the AP reported that the Ratcliffe trip was part of the first U.S. government flights landing in Cuba outside Guantánamo Bay since 2016. More recently, the U.S. State Department said it would provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian assistance and support for satellite internet if the Cuban government allowed it.

For Washington, the Havana encounter suggested that even in a hardened standoff, the security and economic stakes remain too high to avoid direct contact.