The businessman and historical figure of the Cuban exile community, Santiago Álvarez Fernández-Magriñá, 84 years old, interprets the recent remarks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Chinese and Russian espionage bases in Cuba not as a novelty, but as a sign of the stagnation in negotiations between Washington and Havana.
Rubio publicly accused the Cuban regime of hosting intelligence facilities from China and Russia on its territory during an interview on Fox News aired on Tuesday, in which he warned: "We will not allow any foreign military, intelligence, or security apparatus to operate with impunity just 90 miles from the shores of the United States. That will not happen under the presidency of Donald Trump."
Álvarez, interviewed by CiberCuba, provides a political interpretation of the moment when Rubio chose to make these statements about an issue that is not new: "That doesn't surprise anyone. He brought it up now because he has been talking to them for several weeks and trying to get them to agree to something."
According to the veteran of Brigade 2506, the regime has rejected the hand extended by Washington. "Instead of sharing certain moves that would help the Cuban people —like slightly opening the economy and accepting the peaceful cooperation from the United States that is being offered— what they do is continue bringing in Russians and Chinese," he said.
That behavior, in Álvarez's view, is neither new nor surprising. In his opinion, it draws a direct line from the early days of the revolution to the present, recalling that Fidel Castro rejected elections from the very beginning.
Álvarez recalls that during the early months of Castro's regime, there was a demonstration in the Plaza de la República (now Plaza de la Revolución) where the former Costa Rican president José Figueres, an honored guest, called for elections. "Fidel took the microphone away from him and said: elections for what."
That anecdote, upon reading, illustrates the nature of the regime. "I believe that [Fidel Castro] was not even a communist," Álvarez states, suggesting that the approach to foreign powers was always a tool for survival in power, not an ideological conviction.
The accusations made by Rubio against Russia and China are based on a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies from December 2024 that identifies at least 12 Chinese signal intelligence facilities in Cuba, located in sites such as Bejucal, El Wajay, Calabazar, and El Salao, the latter being 70 miles from the Guantanamo Naval Base.
Regarding Russia, Rubio described Cuba as the location of the largest Russian intelligence base outside its territory, noting that Moscow has recruited as many as 20,000 Cubans to fight in Ukraine since 2022.
China responded on Wednesday through its spokesperson Lin Jian, defending its cooperation with Cuba as "legitimate, transparent, and in accordance with international law." The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, for his part, rejected the designation of Cuba as a threat to the United States.
In parallel, discreet negotiations between the Trump administration and the environment surrounding Raúl Castro have been ongoing for weeks without concrete progress. The main Cuban interlocutor appears to be Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Raúl's grandson, who even went so far as to send a secret letter to Trump through a Cuban-American businessman. However, official Carlos Fernández de Cossío made it clear on March 28 that the Cuban political system "is not negotiable," something Díaz-Canel has reiterated excessively.
The United States embassy warned this week that the Trump administration will not tolerate the presence of foreign armies or intelligence agencies in Cuba, in line with Rubio's statements.
The Cuban economy has experienced over a 23% decline in GDP since 2019, with projections of an additional -7.2% in 2026, which Washington views as a lever of pressure on the regime. Rubio was direct about it: "Things can improve in Cuba with serious economic reforms, but not with the current people in charge. They are economically incompetent," he concluded.
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