CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Raul Castro's grandson in Havana,
US and Cuban officials say
[May 15, 2026]
By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ and ERIC TUCKER
HAVANA (AP) — CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials
including Raúl Castro's grandson during a high-level visit to the island
Thursday, Cuban and U.S. officials said.
Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister
Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, and
discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security
issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP.
Ratcliffe was there "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 said.
An official statement from Cuba's government noted that Thursday's
meeting "took place ... against a backdrop of complex bilateral
relations.”
While the U.S. stressed that Cuba cannot continue to be a “safe haven
for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere,” the Cuban delegation
insisted that the island presents no threat to U.S. security. Cuban
officials also took issue with the nation's continued inclusion on the
U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Rodríguez Castro previously secretly met with U.S. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community summit in St.
Kitts in February. While he’s never occupied a government post, he
served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and later as head of Cuba’s
equivalent of the Secret Service.
U.S. and Cuban officials also met earlier this year i n Cuba. The
ongoing meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials mark the first U.S.
government flights to land in Cuba other than at the U.S. Naval Base at
Guantanamo Bay since 2016.
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe, accompanied by President Donald Trump,
speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the
White House in Washington, April 6, 2026, File)
Thursday's meeting comes weeks after the Cuban government confirmed
that it had recently met with U.S. officials on the island as
tensions between the two sides remain high over the U.S. energy
blockade of the Caribbean country and as Cuba’s power grid has
collapsed and energy to its eastern provinces has been cut. The U.S.
blockade of fuel to the island has heightened its economic woes,
with reduced work hours and food spoilage as refrigerators stop
working.
Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department reiterated that the
U.S. will provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian assistance
and support for satellite internet “if the Cuban regime will permit
it.”
In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells
or supplies oil to Cuba. Though Trump also has threatened to
intervene in the country, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said
recently that his country was prepared to fight if that should
happen, sources told the AP earlier this month that military action
is not imminent.
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