CIA Director John Ratcliffe holds rare high-level talks in Havana as Cuba faces fuel crisis and protests

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana on Thursday (May 14) for a rare high-level meeting with Cuban intelligence officials as Cuba faces worsening fuel shortages, nationwide blackouts, and growing anti-government protests. According to Cuban authorities, the meeting took place at the request of the United States. Ratcliffe reportedly told Cuban officials that Havana must make major reforms if it hopes to improve economic and security cooperation with Washington. A CIA official said Ratcliffe warned Cuban leaders that they have only a limited window to stabilize the island’s economy and engage constructively with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The official added that Ratcliffe emphasised Trump should be taken seriously, referencing the US military operation that removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro earlier this year. Images released by the CIA showed American and Cuban officials seated around a long white table decorated with red roses and baby’s breath flowers. Cuban officials notably wore black suits instead of the traditional white guayaberas commonly seen during official meetings. In January, Trump labeled Cuba ‘an unusual and extraordinary threat’ to US national security and invoked emergency powers to intensify pressure on Havana. Since then, Trump has repeatedly warned that Cuba ‘will be next’ in his administration’s campaign against hostile governments in the Western Hemisphere.

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Cuba’s government said it presented evidence during the meeting that categorically showed that Cuba isn’t a threat to the national security of the US. There are no reasons to include Cuba on the US list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Cuban officials also insisted that the island hosts no foreign military bases and that Cuba doesn’t support, doesn’t finance, or permit terrorist or extremist organizations. The diplomatic talks came just one day after the Cuban government announced it had completely run out of fuel oil and diesel needed to maintain electricity generation. The severe shortages have triggered widespread blackouts and protests across Havana as frustration grows over deteriorating living conditions.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the crisis on US policy, saying the collapse of the country’s electricity system was caused by the genocidal energy blockade imposed on our country by the US. Among the Cuban officials attending Thursday’s meeting were Interior Minister Lazaro Alvarez and Raul Rodriguez Castro, the influential grandson of former Cuban leader Raul Castro.

Rodríguez Castro, commonly known as ‘the Crab’, has emerged as a key figure in recent discussions with US officials and serves as a longtime aide and bodyguard to his grandfather. Despite growing economic pressure, Cuba’s communist government has maintained that it will not negotiate changes to its single-party political system. “To surrender isn’t an option for Cuba,” Díaz-Canel said in January.

The United States has continued pushing for the release of political prisoners and broader economic liberalization in an effort to prevent further collapse of the Cuban economy. “You cannot change the economic trajectory of Cuba as long as the people who are in charge of it now are in charge,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday during a Fox News interview. “That’s what’s going to have to change because these people have proven incapable. I hope I’m wrong. We’ll give them a chance. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.”