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Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday sanctioned five Cuban entities and eight individuals with ties to Havana’s military procurement as the Trump administration ramps up efforts to rearrange the country’s communist government system.
“The Cuban Communist regime is a state sponsor of terrorism that spies on America, arms violent left-wing radicals, spreads poisonous Marxist ideology, and serves as a staging ground for Russia, China & Iran just 90 miles from our shores,” Rubio wrote in a post on social platform X, alleging Havana is a “rogue state harboring hostile military, intelligence & terror operations on our doorstep.”
Rubio added, “Anyone supporting, sponsoring, or providing services to these sanctioned actors is at risk of being sanctioned themselves. Foreign banks and other companies that provide services to, or hold funds for, these entities should terminate those activities immediately.”
The move follows efforts made earlier this year to crack down on Cuba’s state-owned Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), a powerful, military-owned business conglomerate that controls at least 40 percent of the Cuban economy.
The Trump administration is hopeful that economic pressure bolstered by an eight-month oil blockade will encourage a leadership change on the island.
However, officials remain resistant to shifts influenced by their American counterparts.
“The path is difficult, the situation is complex, but the will to triumph is unshakable. We are not a nation in dispute nor a colony; we are a sovereign people who has decided its destiny,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a Monday speech before Parliament.
But the White House has warned that resistance to transformation could result in a situation parallel to Venezuela, which saw its leader Nicolás Maduro captured in early January, destabilizing the political base in Caracas.
CIA agents have been mobilized to target the island of Cuba through intelligence analysts and officers utilizing cyber operations, people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
Individuals are being recruited to join a task force that is seeking specialists with a background in covert influence operations, per the Times.
Similar measures were used by the CIA to aid in Maduro’s capture, according to the outlet’s previous reporting.
The Trump administration won’t be the first to use CIA agents to attempt to overthrow Cuba’s communist government.
The Bay of Pigs operation, which took place 1959 to 1961, that was led by more than a thousand Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro failed under the leadership of former Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
“Despite efforts of the government to keep the invasion plans covert, it became common knowledge among Cuban exiles in Miami. Through Cuban intelligence, Castro learned of the guerilla training camps in Guatemala as early as October 1960, and the press reported widely on events as they unfolded,” according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Castro’s troops were able to successfully fend off those who were a part of the invasion.
Sixty-five years later, Cuban leaders are preparing to thwart another potential attack.
“The intentions here are no surprise, since Cuba has long been the target of the C.I.A.’s efforts at espionage, subversion and destabilization, including terrorism,” Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, said in a statement to the Times.
“And yet the State Department has the audacity to call Cuba a threat for exercising its right to legitimate self-defense,” he added.
Havana’s leaders say they are disappointed in Rubio for helping to lead the charge, citing his heritage as a Cuban American while alleging he’s under political pressure to act against the interests of the island.
“US economic aggression against Cuba and threats of military action are the makings of a small but powerful cabal in Southern Florida that follows very narrow ambitions of vengeance,” Fernández de Cossío wrote in a statement on X.
“The Sec. of State owes his career to this cabal and is at the forefront of cruel collective punishment,” he added.
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