The State Department has released a 100-page report accusing Cuba of running a covert influence and espionage network inside the United States for decades, alleging that Havana infiltrated top levels of the U.S. government, recruited American activists, and cultivated ties with universities and left-wing organizations to undermine American interests. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the report as an effort to expose what he called Havana's sustained campaign against the United States, writing on social media that the Cuban regime has been the leading sponsor of radical leftism and Third Worldism in the country for more than six decades.
The report, which draws on declassified intelligence and historical records, argues that Cuba's operations went far beyond traditional spycraft. It alleges that Cuban intelligence officers penetrated the State Department, the National Security Council, and the Pentagon, while also building relationships with American revolutionary groups such as the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, and Puerto Rican militant organizations. According to the document, this network later expanded to include connections with Antifa, anti-ICE organizations, socialist groups, and left-wing nonprofits, creating a broad infrastructure for spreading communist ideology.
Secretary Rubio, a Cuban American who has long been a vocal critic of the Castro regime, said the report is intended to inform the American people about what he described as a six-decade campaign of subversion. He posted on X that the State Department is exposing the full history of Cuban espionage and subversion in the country. The report itself states that for nearly seven decades, the Cuban regime has waged a sustained campaign of subversion against the United States, and it claims that Cuba's greatest success came not through military force but through influence, building an international network of activists, academics, nonprofits, and political organizations that continued spreading revolutionary ideology long after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, dismissed the report as political propaganda. In a statement posted on X, he called it the State Department's latest fallacy about Cuba and accused the Trump administration of manufacturing a pretext to continue what he described as Washington's cruel and criminal economic war against the island. Without naming Rubio, he accused that U.S. politician from South Florida of concocting a macabre plan that advances only the interests of those who have always paid him. The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The report highlights several high-profile espionage cases, including convicted spies Victor Manuel Rocha, Ana Belén Montes, Walter Kendall Myers, and members of the Wasp Network. It also cites former CIA counterintelligence chief James Olson, who called Cuba's intelligence service probably the most aggravating intelligence service he ever worked against and warned that the Cubans have penetrated the U.S. government, adding that only the tip of the iceberg is known. The document further alleges that Cuba viewed American colleges and universities as recruiting grounds, identifying politically sympathetic students who could later move into influential jobs in government or the private sector. It points to partnerships between the University of Havana and dozens of U.S. universities as examples of what it describes as long-term influence efforts.
The report also revisits Cuba's ties to revolutionary movements across Latin America and says Havana provided sanctuary to American fugitives tied to militant groups. It names organizations including the Venceremos Brigade, ICAP, the National Network on Cuba, the Democratic Socialists of America, Code Pink, and the National Lawyers Guild, arguing they helped maintain pro-Cuba activism in the United States for decades. The document concludes that Cuba evolved from a Soviet ally into what it calls the ideological capital of the modern radical left, arguing the regime increasingly relied on espionage, political organizing, and influence campaigns instead of conventional military power.
The release of the report comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Havana. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz appeared on Fox News to warn that Cuba remains a national security threat and accused China and Russia of collecting information around U.S. military bases in Cuba. Waltz said the Cuban regime is not only a threat to its own people but a national security threat, and this administration is not going to stand for it any longer. The Trump administration has also expanded sanctions on Cuba beyond U.S. companies, targeting foreign entities that do business with the island.
