The lawyer and national security analyst Jason Ian Poblete pointed out this Friday that what is truly unusual about the visit of the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, to Havana is not the visit itself, but rather something that has never happened in similar missions: the public photographs and their dissemination on social media by the agency itself.
Poblete drew a direct parallel with the secret visit made by John Brennan to Cuba in 2015, when he was the director of the CIA. That mission was completely discreet: no photos, no press releases, and no stops at the embassy. Brennan then met with Colonel Alejandro Castro Espín, the son of Raúl Castro, at a government guest house in Cuba, as part of the clandestine diplomatic channel that had resulted in the historic announcement on December 17, 2014, regarding the restoration of relations between Washington and Havana.
"Brennan traveled to Havana in 2015 and met with Colonel Alejandro Castro Espín, the son of Raúl, as part of the secret diplomatic channel that led to the announcement in December 2014," Poblete recalled in his analysis published on X.
Ratcliffe's visit last Thursday broke all those protocols of discretion. The CIA published photographs of the meeting on its official account, showing a conference room with an oval table and simultaneous translation headsets, with some faces deliberately blurred.
This was supplemented by a stop at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, where Ratcliffe posed with the Chargé d'Affaires Mike Hammer in front of the diplomatic building, an image that was shared by the embassy's official account.
"What was genuinely unusual yesterday is the public photography; CIA directors typically do not pose for the camera during trips of this nature, and the agency's own sharing of images on social media, coupled with the stop at the embassy with official Hammer, represents a break from how these channels have historically been managed," Poblete wrote.
The analyst openly questioned the logic of this communication strategy: "I'm not sure what is intended to be achieved with the messaging strategy; the substantive work doesn't require it, and for some matters, it becomes counterproductive."
During the visit, Ratcliffe met with high-ranking officials from MININT, including Brigadier General Ramón Romero Curbelo, head of the Intelligence Directorate, and General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, Minister of the Interior. He also met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, "El Cangrejo", grandson of Raúl Castro and head of the General Directorate of Personal Security at MININT.
Poblete recalled that the intelligence channel between the two countries "has been a recurring instrument in the limited set of diplomatic tools of the U.S.-Cuba relationship when the Foreign Ministry channel cannot convey the message." However, he warned that the precedent from 2015 does not bode well for easy outcomes: the Cubans never fulfilled the agreements reached at that time with Brennan, including the placement of a liaison officer in Washington.
This was the second high-level visit between Washington and Havana in less than six weeks, following the contact from the State Department on April 10, 2026.
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