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The news agency Reuters captured video of the departure from Cuba of a delegation from the CIA led by its director, John Ratcliffe, who traveled to Havana this Thursday on an official flight of the United States Air Force.
The flight, identified as SAM554 and operated by a Boeing C-40B Clipper with registration 01-0040, departed from Joint Base Andrews in Washington and landed in Havana at approximately 13:00 UTC. After the meeting, the aircraft headed to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
The Cuban regime confirmed the meeting through an official statement published on the website of the Communist Party of Cuba.
According to the text, the visit was requested by Washington and approved by "the Leadership of the Revolution": "Following the request submitted by the government of the United States for a delegation headed by CIA Director John Ratcliffe to be received in Havana, the Revolutionary Leadership approved the holding of this visit and the meeting with their counterpart from the Ministry of the Interior."
The statement did not detail the topics discussed in the meeting.
The visit comes amid a week of unusual diplomatic signals. Last Tuesday, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: "Cuba asks for help, and we are going to talk!". A day later, Miguel Díaz-Canel stated they are "always willing to engage in dialogue."
This is the second high-level contact between Washington and Havana in just a few weeks. On April 10, a delegation from the State Department, led by Marco Rubio, held a secret meeting on the island —the first landing of an official U.S. aircraft in Cuba since 2016— during which issues such as the release of political prisoners, access to internet through Starlink, and the presence of foreign groups in the country were discussed.
The Cuban delegation was represented at the level of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, including Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of the late Raúl Castro.
On that occasion, U.S. officials warned that Cuba has "a small opportunity" and "a brief window of time" to implement reforms.
Ratcliffe's presence in Havana carries particular symbolic weight. In January 2026, the CIA director traveled to Caracas on a diplomatic mission that culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro, making his trip to Cuba a signal of the strategic importance that Washington assigns to the process.
The context of pressure is significant: since January 2026, the United States has imposed more than 240 sanctions on Cuba, intercepted at least seven tankers bound for the island, and conducted at least 25 military surveillance flights near its coasts. At the same time, reports indicated that the Trump administration had given directives to the Pentagon to prepare for possible military operations against Cuba.
At the global threat hearing in 2026, Ratcliffe also confirmed that Russia seeks to expand its security and diplomatic ties with Cuba and Nicaragua, adding a geopolitical dimension to the ongoing negotiations.
This Thursday's meeting is the highest-level encounter between both governments since the current phase of talks began, raising the question of what concessions—if any—the Cuban regime is willing to offer in exchange for alleviating the pressure that threatens its survival.
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