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The Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío published a lengthy text on Facebook this Wednesday titled "Cuba, the US, and the Threats," in which he categorically denies that the Cuban regime has threatened the United States in any way, in direct response to a hearing that took place last Tuesday in the US federal Congress.
In that hearing, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed before Congress that Cuba poses a threat to the national security of the United States, amid an unprecedented escalation of tensions between Washington and Havana in decades.
"No member of the Cuban government or any official with an official position has issued any statement threatening the U.S. No one in Cuba has threatened to position an aircraft carrier, a frigate, or a combat ship off the U.S. coast," the official wrote.
Fernández de Cossío went further, asserting that "the only foreign military base in Cuba is the American one that usurps a portion of the territory in the province of Guantánamo," disregarding the accumulated evidence regarding Chinese intelligence facilities on the island.
This statement directly contrasts with the findings of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which identified at least 12 Chinese facilities in Cuba with signals intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities, four of which are considered essential: Bejucal, Wajay, Calabazar, and El Salao.
The installation of El Salao, in Santiago de Cuba, has been under construction since 2021 and is located just 70 miles from the Guantanamo Naval Base, according to CSIS.
New satellite images released in May 2025 confirmed the progressive expansion of those facilities, and Republican Congressman Carlos Giménez was unequivocal about it: "China is enhancing many existing espionage facilities in Cuba to spy on the United States. They are intercepting our communications and monitoring our military tactics."
The Biden administration itself confirmed in June 2023 the existence of these facilities, operating since at least 2019, which makes the Deputy Foreign Minister's denial a position that the Cuban regime has systematically maintained for three years despite the evidence.
The pattern of denial is consistent: Fernández de Cossío himself, Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez, and the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Johana Tablada de la Torre have repeatedly denied the existence of Chinese bases. “Find another lie!” Tablada said in December 2024.
In his publication this Wednesday, the Deputy Foreign Minister also accused the U.S. government of engaging in "ruthless economic warfare" against Cuba and of having "practiced biological warfare and terrorism." He characterized those who speak of a Cuban threat as acting with "aggressive purposes and revengeful motives" to "find pretexts for aggression."
The text from Fernández de Cossío comes after Díaz-Canel published a message along the same lines, titled "Cuba does not threaten, Cuba is constantly threatened," in which he stated that "in more than six decades of socialist Revolution, ninety miles from the U.S., not a single offensive action has ever come out of Cuba against the national security of that country."
The context in which these statements are made is one of maximum pressure: on May 1st, Trump declared at a private dinner that the U.S. would "take Cuba almost immediately" after concluding operations in Iran; on May 6th, Marco Rubio announced new sanctions against GAESA and 12 Cuban officials; and on May 11th, Axios revealed that the Pentagon updated operational plans against Cuba, including military surveillance flights over the island.
China, for its part, rejected Rubio's accusations on April 29 and described its cooperation with Cuba as "completely legitimate, transparent, and in accordance with international law," while Xi Jinping approved 80 million dollars in financial assistance and 60,000 tons of rice for Havana in response to pressure from Washington.
On April 29, the U.S. Senate rejected, by a vote of 51 to 47, a Democratic resolution that would have required Congressional approval for Trump to order military actions against Cuba, leaving the president with considerable leeway regarding the island.
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