Rubio calls on Cubans to partner with CIA ‘to create positive change’

Washington has increased pressure on Havana following the US military’s capture of Venezuelan then-President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on those seeking change in Cuba to partner with the CIA and help force an end to the island’s communist government.

US President Donald Trump and other senior US officials have for months openly hinted at military intervention and permanent presence in Cuba to ramp up economic, political, and legal pressure on the country.

On Friday, Rubio seemed to openly confirm this when he wrote on X: “To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba – now is the time.”

Rubio commented on “the disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few” in Cuba, encouraging civilians to “seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discreet partnership with the CIA”.

The call was mocked by Cuban officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio.

“Now the United States is resorting to public recruitment for the CIA… There must be a great deal of desperation or misery within the agency for it to be forced to sell its services like a tube of toothpaste,” he wrote on X.

This is far from the first time Cuba has been threatened with military intervention by US officials.

Last month, Fernandez de Cossio told the US cable television channel C-SPAN’s flagship programme, Washington Journal, that it would be an “atrocious international crime for the US to use military force against Cuba, which is a peaceful neighbouring country”.

The CIA later uploaded a video on X offering instructions in Spanish for those who believe they have information of interest to the intelligence agency, encouraging them to first and foremost visit an official “US embassy in person” if they can safely travel to one.

These latest developments come as a US-imposed oil blockade on Cuba earlier this year has put civilians in the country under intense economic hardship, as they contend with fuel shortages and blackouts exacerbated by failing infrastructure.

United Nations rights experts have condemned the oil blockade as ‌a violation of international law, while rights advocates say the Trump administration’s threats have echoed an imperialist approach.

Washington has maintained an embargo on Cuba for ⁠more than 60 years, as the Trump administration steps up pressure on Havana following the US military’s capture of Venezuelan then-President Nicolas Maduro in a deadly ⁠raid in January.