The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, met this Thursday in Havana with General of the Army Corps Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, the Minister of the Interior of Cuba, in a high-level meeting between the intelligence and security agencies of both countries, which the Cuban regime confirmed through an official statement from the Communist Party of Cuba.
According to the text released by the PCC, the visit was requested by Washington and approved by the so-called "Direction of the Revolution," and it included Ratcliffe "with his counterpart from the Ministry of the Interior".
The statement notes that the meeting took place "in a context characterized by the complexity of bilateral relations, in order to contribute to the political dialogue between both nations."
The choice of the Cuban interlocutor is not a minor detail.
Álvarez Casas is neither the chancellor nor the president: he is the head of State Security, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, and, paradoxically, the first Cuban official sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky Act in January 2021 for "serious human rights abuses."
The sanctions were reiterated in July 2025, imposing a ban on entry to U.S. territory for him and his family members.
That Ratcliffe met specifically with him —and not with a diplomat— confirms that the meeting was strictly about intelligence and security, outside of formal channels.
The regime's statement clearly outlines Cuba's position: the island argued that it "does not pose a threat to the national security of the U.S., nor are there legitimate reasons to include it on the list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism."
He added that Cuba "does not harbor, support, finance, or allow terrorist or extremist organizations" and that there are no foreign military or intelligence bases on its territory.
Both parties expressed, according to the same statement, "interest in developing bilateral cooperation between the law enforcement and compliance agencies, focusing on the security of both nations, as well as regional and international security."
The meeting occurs during one of the tensest moments in bilateral relations in decades.
The Trump administration has implemented a maximum pressure policy: over 240 new sanctions since January 2026, Executive Order 14380 declaring the Cuban regime an "extraordinary threat," and tariffs on countries supplying oil to Cuba, with at least seven tankers intercepted and a reduction in fuel available on the island of between 80% and 90%.
Meanwhile, since March 2026, conversations have been taking place between both governments, in a process partially mediated by the Vatican that included the release of at least 20 political prisoners on March 13 and the announcement of a pardon for more than 2,000 inmates in April.
Ratcliffe's visit to Havana follows the pattern that the CIA director established in January 2026, when he traveled to Caracas to meet with Delcy Rodríguez after the capture of Nicolás Maduro, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Venezuela in that context.
Álvarez Casas, 63 years old, has been Minister of the Interior since November 2020 and was promoted to Army Corps General in June 2025. His career has taken place entirely in Military Counterintelligence and the MININT, the internal repression apparatus of the regime.
The lingering question is whether this direct contact between the intelligence leadership of both countries will lead to any concrete changes in Cuba's status on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, from which it was re-added in May 2025 after being removed by Biden in January of that year.
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