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The official account of the Embassy of the United States in Cuba published a photograph this Friday showing Mike Hammer, the U.S. mission chief in Havana, alongside the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, posing in front of the diplomatic mission building with the text "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" visible in the background, thus documenting the official reception that Hammer held for the high-ranking intelligence official on Cuban soil.
Ratcliffe traveled to Havana on Thursday on a special mission flight from Joint Base Andrews, marking the second high-level contact between Washington and Havana in less than six weeks.
The CIA director met with the Minister of the Interior Lázaro Álvarez Casas — sanctioned by the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act since January 2021 for serious human rights abuses — with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo" or "Raulito", grandson of Raúl Castro and lieutenant colonel of MININT, and with Brigadier General Ramón Romero Curbelo, head of the Cuban MININT Intelligence Directorate.
The identity of Romero Curbelo was publicly revealed by the exiled Miguel Cossío based on the photographs that the CIA itself published on its official X account, featuring some faces deliberately blurred, an unusual gesture for an intelligence agency.
"This is General Ramón Romero Curbelo, head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Cuban regime. He is the 10 of Spades in our The Cuban Deck. The community of Cuban American exiles knows very well who he is," wrote Cossío on X.
The central message that Ratcliffe brought to Havana was from President Donald Trump: the United States is willing to engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes "fundamental changes."
CIA sources warned that "dialogue presents Cuba with an exceptional opportunity to stabilize its failing economy and respond to the needs of its people, but the window of opportunity will not remain open indefinitely."
The regime was the first to announce the meeting through an official statement from the Communist Party of Cuba, in which it noted that it was Washington that requested the encounter and that "the leadership of the Revolution approved the holding of this visit."
The visit comes as Cuba faces its worst energy crisis in decades. 65% of the territory experienced simultaneous blackouts on Tuesday, and Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy admitted on state television that the country has "absolutely no fuel or diesel", with outages that could exceed 20 hours a day.
The ECLAC projects a contraction of the Cuban GDP of 6.5% for 2026, the worst in Latin America, while economist Pedro Monreal warns it could reach 15%, matching the worst year of the Special Period.
Hammer, who participated on May 6 in the Conference of Chiefs of Mission in Doral, Florida, alongside Marco Rubio and General Francis L. Donovan from the Southern Command, solidifies his role as a central figure in active U.S. diplomacy in Cuba during this period.
A high-ranking official from the Trump administration summed up the regime's situation bluntly: "They have no fuel. They have no money. They have no one coming to rescue them. The regime has been stubborn since 1959, but even they realize it's time for a change."
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