CIA chief Ratcliffe meets Raúl Castro’s grandson in Havana amid tensions

Ratcliffe’s Thursday meeting in Havana involved Cuba’s senior officials and centered on intelligence cooperation and broader stability issues, according to Cuban and U.S. officials. The CIA director met with Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, along with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who is the grandson of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, the officials said.

A CIA official told AP that Ratcliffe was in Havana “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.” The CIA official also confirmed the meetings to AP.

Cuba’s government issued a statement saying the meeting took place “against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations.” AP reported that the Cuban side raised concerns about how Washington characterizes Cuba’s role in regional security, including its assessment of the island as a possible threat.

The U.S. emphasized that Cuba cannot continue to be a “safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere,” while Cuban officials maintained that the island presents no threat to U.S. security, AP reported. Cuban officials also took issue with Cuba’s continued inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

AP reported that Rodríguez Castro previously met secretly with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community summit in St. Kitts in February. AP said Rodríguez Castro has not held a government post but has served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and later as head of Cuba’s equivalent of the Secret Service.

The Thursday meeting followed other U.S.-Cuba meetings earlier this year on the island, AP reported. Those ongoing contacts mark the first U.S. government flights to land in Cuba outside the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay since 2016, according to AP.

The latest diplomacy comes as tensions remain high over the U.S. energy “blockade” and Cuba’s broader power and economic problems, AP reported. Cuba has said its power grid has collapsed and that energy to its eastern provinces has been cut, with the U.S. blockade of fuel contributing to economic strains such as reduced work hours and food spoilage as refrigerators stop working, AP said.

Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department reiterated that Washington will provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian assistance and support for satellite internet “if the Cuban regime will permit it,” AP reported. AP also reported that in late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba, and that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said recently his country was prepared to fight if the U.S. moved toward military action, though sources told AP earlier this month that military action is not imminent.

The AP report was authored by Andrea Rodríguez and said this version is corrected to show that the U.S. aid offer is $100 million.